OREANDA-NEWS. On April 15, 2009 Alliance Bank (Almaty), a company listed on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), provided KASE with a press release dated April 15, 2009, reported the press-centre of KASE:

Alliance Bank informed on approval of grant of the first loan for higher education purposes within the state program for soft crediting of students.

The first loan was granted to Aldiyar Aydash, first year student of engineer and economical faculty of Kazakh economical university named after T. Ryskulova (KazEU), studying at specialty "Information systems". Aldiyar was born January 14, 1991 in Almaty, now he lives with parents-invalids.

The student provided certificate proving he got only good and excellent marks.

The guarantors are Financial Tsentr JSC at the Ministry of education and science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and KazEU.

"We see high interest of students in this program, however current restrictions do not allow for covering larger number of pretenders", - said Maksat Kabashev, Chairman of Alliance Bank. - "This is why, taking into account a potential and scale of this state initiative, jointly with Samruk-Kazyna" we are working to change terms of the program to make education credits available to a larger number of people".

It was informed earlier; the soft crediting for students program was elaborated by National wellbeing fund Samruk-Kazyna jointly with the Ministry of education and the Ministry of health care. Alliance Bank has been selected as a bank-agent for disbursement of funds allocated by the state for implementation of the program.

The soft crediting of students is aimed to enhance availability of high education for socially vulnerable strata. The program covers students studying in Kazakhstan institutions on payment basis in technical, natural-scientific and medical specialties on full time basis.

The program covers:

- students-orphans and students without care of parents;

- students-invalids and those with parents-invalids;

- students coming from large families and incomplete families;

- students, parents of which are pensioners;

- other categories of students as defined by the decision of the Ministry of education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The program is unique with its low annual effective rate - 9 %, without any additional fees. The program allows taking educational loans for up to 15 years. The security can be real estate or a guarantee of Financial Tsentr JSC or that of a high school.

On March 24 Alliance Bank has began to receive applications for participation in the soft loan for students program. 113 Kazakhstan high schools provided a seat for a credit manager of the bank. In three weeks credit officers of Alliance bank provided around 4000 consultations and over 300 requests were admitted for consideration.