By Kenny Chee

MORE people are furthering their education during the economic downturn and, now, Citibank is giving students one more incentive to excel.

The bank announced a scheme yesterday that will allow top undergraduates from University of Wales and University of Bradford degree programmes at the Management Development Institute of Singapore, as well as Master of Business Administration (MBA) students from Insead and Nanyang Business School, to save on their Citibank school-loan payments.

Full- and part-time Singaporean and Singapore permanent-resident students who make the dean's list or graduate with a grade-point average of at least 4.5 will be eligible for a 0.5 percentage point discount on the interest of their loans after completing their studies. The standard interest rate is about 5 per cent, which means that their interest rate would be reduced to about 4.5 per cent.

They will enjoy the lowered interest rate for up to five years after their graduation, thanks to the scheme, which was launched on March 1.

Citibank intends to extend the loan scheme to at least 10 tertiary institutions and business schools here, including the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and NUS' Risk Management Institute, over the next six months.

Students my paper contacted applauded the initiative. Said part-time Nanyang Business School MBA student Joel Wong, a 29-year-old civil servant: 'If I should lose my regular income and need to take out a loan to finance my studies, I would consider the Citibank scheme in order to pay a lower interest rate.'

Loan applicants can call the Citibank hotline on 6225-5225.

For more my paper stories click here.