While parents, neighbours, relatives and friends exchange greetings and compare the marks scored by students in public examination, the banker foresees huge business opportunity during the admission season.

And the Tiruchi region of Punjab National Bank has jumped the gun by announcing its decision to honour school toppers/ meritorious students, their parents and teachers.

The bank is going ahead with this initiative for a second year in a row.

“We will be giving an in-principle sanction to school toppers and those with meritorious record to enable them pursue higher education,”PNB's Deputy General Manager and Tiruchi Circle Head, Mr S.M. Veerapan, told Business Line .

The bank is planning to give the in-principle educational loan sanction to the first five meritorious candidates in the State and the first and second rank holders in each of the 26 districts in the State.

“Ninety two students were honoured last year. As many as 2,267 educational loan accounts were added to our EL portfolio and the total amount disbursed stood at Rs 41.19 crore,” Mr R. Ganesan, Chief Manager, said, and added that the numbers pertained to the Tiruchi circle.

To inculcate savings habit, the bank helps the students open ‘zero balance' savings account.

For teachers, the bank has come up with ‘PNB Shikshak Scheme'. “It is a zero balance account with overdraft facility of Rs 50,000 or last drawn salary, whichever is lower,” he said.

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