The Calcutta-based Allahabad Bank has begun sanctioning loans on the Internet in a trendsetting move. The bank is offering this only for its educational loan scheme and plans to extend the facility to car and home loans as well.
Of the 146 applications that the bank received for assistance under the educational loans scheme for the semester 1999-2000, 77 applications or over 50 per cent have come in through the Net. The sanctions are being made through the website www.allahabadbank.com.
The mechanism is simple. The website has an interactive application form, where the applicant, who is enrolled with any of the educational institutions eligible under the scheme (including the IITs, IIMs etc), puts in his application, along with the serial number of the institution's enrolment letter. The sanction is then sent back to the applicant online. While the online sanction is provisional, the applicant is then asked to take his documents and proofs personally to a designated branch where the final formalities are undertaken.
Allahabad Bank chairman Harbhajan Singh said, "Since the applicants, who are bright students of IITs, IIMs, Bajaj institute and others, live on campuses which are a little away from the cities, it is much easier for them to access our website and get online sanction." Singh said extending this facility to car loans and housing loans by assigning designated branches in cities where applicants can complete the formalities after getting online sanctions will be the bank's next priority. The ultimate aim is overall Internet banking and the bank is already busy putting in place a major networking system.
Students of IIM Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur top the list of applicants for the bank's new scheme, while Regional engineering CollegeRourkee, XLRI Jamshedpur and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Mumbai, also figure in the list.
Bank sources pointed out that earlier the website merely had an application form on the Net, which was not interactive. The applicant could only download the form and post an application physically. The bank then decided to make it interactive and include online sanctions for the educational scheme.
The bank now anticipates that with the car
