It has also put off much-needed structural reform of provincial-government finances, a commitment made by the previous government to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition of its loan agreements.

ECONOMIST: Floating or sinking? | The

In other cases, people were told they had to buy the insurance as a condition of being offered their loan.

BBC: Q&A: PPI claims - how high could they go?

Fraud for profit is committed by industry professionals who misstate, misrepresent or omit relevant details about their personal or their clients' employment and income, debt and credit, or property value and condition with the goal of maximizing profits on a loan transaction.

FORBES: These tips will help you avoid becoming the victim of fraud.

For example, the government, as a condition of bearing part or all of the cost of reducing the principal on a given loan, might have insisted on receiving some share of the future appreciation in the value of the property in question, perhaps by issuing a second mortgage that had to be paid off upon a sale.

NEWYORKER: Replay

Pakistan's government has delayed a reformed general sales tax, which the IMF set as a condition for the next tranche of the loan, agreed in 2008.

BBC: Pakistan fuel price U-turn 'a mistake'

This is the same criterion used by the actuary of Social Security to compute the ultimate measure of the long-term financial condition of Social Security and used by private lenders in determining whether the purpose to which a prospective loan is put will increase the present value of a company's future cash flows by more than the amount of the loan.

FORBES: Magazine Article