Kerala is the single largest originator of education loans for the country as a whole till date.
Total disbursal of education loans amount to Rs 6,000 crore, according to Mr Madhavkumar V. R., Additional General Manager and Zonal Head, Federal Bank, Thiruvananthapuram.
Sharing the bank's growth plans with newspersons here, he said Federal Bank's exposure to education loans was Rs 300 crore.
He put the NPAs on the bank's books from the sector at 10 per cent.
There have been many requests for rescheduling of the loans, too.
Its share was comparably lower relative to its size because the loan product was offered at higher interest rates to start with.
This anomaly has since been set right, Mr Madhavkumar said.
Utility bills
The bank has tied up with various utilities such as BSNL and Kerala Water Authority for facilitating bill payment for its customers.
This is currently available in the Thiruvananthapuram zone, and the bank was discussing a similar proposal with the Kerala State Electricity Board.
Free of service charge, these would be replicated in other centres such as Kochi before expanding coverage across the State.
The bank has also tied up with 13 service providers to introduce mobile recharge facility through its portal.
Customers are enabled to do share trading through the portal as also book Railway tickets, Mr Madhavkumar said. Federal Bank is the first in the State to offer a swipe card facility at points of sale (PoS), he added.
Loan processing hub
It has set up a loan processing hub attached to the Thiruvananthapuram zonal office and has been able to cut the time of transaction.
Loan proposals originate at the branches and are documented before being sent to the hub.
According to Mr Alex T. Paikada, Assistant General Manager, all loans except for agriculture and Government-sponsored schemes are processed at the hub.