On the other hand, the negative repercussions of the global economic crisis in recent years and the increased uncertainty in the region have led banks to adopt tougher lending policies. The growing financing needs of the government and the trend towards the local market to fulfill a large part of these needs have reinforced banks' conservative lending behavior, which in turn created a safe and competitive investment opportunity for lending to the private sector. Similarly, total deposits in local banks increased by 10.5% at the end of 2013, while non-resident deposits have seen a steady growth of 19.2%, which is an indicator of increased confidence in the Jordanian economy and banking system. The Central Bank acknowledges that funding for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises has been modest (10% of total facilities granted), which highlights the need to strengthen the sector's ability to access required finance with favorable lending conditions, since it is one of the vitally important sectors to drive economic activity. In light of this reality, the Central Bank strengthened its role in supporting local high value added economic sectors in order to stimulate economic growth. The Bank has given more attention to SMEs, providing funding programs directed towards local industry, tourism, renewable energy and agriculture, for terms appropriate to clients' financing needs (five years for industry, tourism and agriculture and ten years for renewable energy), and with a ceiling of 5% of loan portfolio of operating banks. In addition, the Central Bank has sought to provide credit lines for SME through the banks operating in the Kingdom. Jordan has managed to secure $70 million soft loan from the World Bank and a credit line of $50 million with similar conditions from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. This was later followed by another credit line of $150 million from the same fund due to the success of the banking sector in utilizing these amounts in the development of SME in Jordan. Almost the full amount of the World Bank loan was used in developing more than four thousand micro, small and medium enterprises, 60% of which were established outside the capital city. Work is underway to complete final terms of reference for a special loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) worth $150 million for the same purpose. The Central Bank has provided the needed facilities and support to enable banks to benefit from this loan at appropriate costs and maturities. Accordingly, the funds that have been, or will be 