MBA students who graduate at the top of their cohorts will qualify for an interest rate reduction of 0.5 percentage points on their loan with the bank.

If the MBA student with a Citibank loan excels, the bank will cut the rates on his education loan from 4.99 to 4.49 per cent per year with a maximum of five years to repay.

Citibank says the new loan programme is the bank's way of recognising the efforts of top MBA students here.

Initially, only MBA students from Nanyang Business School, Insead and those enrolled in the University of Wales and University of Bradford courses run at the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) qualify for the incentive.

But the programme could be extended to at least 10 tertiary institutions and business schools such as the NUS Business School over the next six months.

Citbank said the courses were selected based on their popularity and 'well-defined grading criteria', said Citibank.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.