Hyderabad, October '04:  Standard Chartered, India’s largest international Bank has announced the introduction of India’s first ever EMI Holiday Personal Loans. An innovative first among industry product variants, the new loan has been specially designed for the forthcoming festive season and includes a special EMI repayment concession which begins one month later than other Personal Loans, thus enabling the customer to manage their cash flows better.

The EMI Holiday Personal loan is targeted at the salaried individual and spirited entrepreneurs who incur extra expenses on account of shopping, home renovations, wedding expenses or business related financial needs during the festival and active trading seasons. With the new EMI Holiday Personal Loan, customers can now borrow money and enjoy the festival shopping and holidays without worrying about the EMI Payments.

The product provides the customer two distinct benefits. Since there is an exemption from EMI Payments for up to 2 months with no extra interest for the EMI Holiday period, it provides the customer a lower effective interest rate (by up to 100 basis points). Thus, a customer who avails of a Personal Loan in October 2004, would not be required to repay until January 2004. The customer is not charged any extra interest at all for the EMI holiday period.

Shyam Srinivasan, General Manager & Head, Credit Cards & Personal Loans Standard Chartered Bank said, “We have an ongoing programme to understand our customers and their needs better. One of the things that emerged was the aftermath of an ever-increasing festival season shopping budget and holidays becoming a very tight monetary situation for most people. This is where our new EMI Holiday Personal Loans come in.

A yet another first, the new EMI Holiday Personal Loan is one of its kind in India with such a unique repayment scheme. We want our customers to enjoy the festivities without worrying about the EMI’s because when people are on holiday so are the EMI’s”.

The EMI Holiday Personal Loan will be available in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, & Hyderabad from now through till November 2004.

Some of the industry firsts by Standard Chartered include the introduction of Global Credit card in India in 1999, Photocard in 1995, Picture Card in 1998, the AxcessPlus savings account in 2001, the overdraft account against cars – Mileage in 2002, the Parivaar savings account in 2003, the co-branded fuel debit card with Bharat Petroleum in 2003, the Last EMI Refund feature on Personal Loans in 2003, the trendy Standard Chartered Visa Mini Card in 2003 and the all new Manhattan credit card a month ago.