Mumbai: In order to encourage more girls to take up higher education, banks like Union Bank of India (UBI) and State Bank of India (SBI) have introduced special loans for girls with lower interest rates. Recently, UBI introduced an education loan scheme for premier management students, where women will pay 50 basis points less than their male counterparts, reports Financial Chronicle. The loan scheme will be exclusive for Indian Institutes of Management students, where male students get loans at 10.5 percent and female students get 10 percent. Total loan under the scheme is 15 lakh, which is designed to meet all education expenses, including hostel fees and cost of books. For students in Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad, the loan amount is higher at 20 lakh. It also covers the student exchange programme. They have an education loan outstanding of 952 crore. In fact, some of the banks under the aegis of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) last year decided to implement a model education loan scheme formulated by the government to promote education of the girl child. The country's largest lender SBI also has an education loan designed specifically for IIMs, where the loan is 50 basis points lower in interest rate for women. The bank is hoping to increase the number of institutions under the SBI scholar loan schemes from 61 to 100 for the next academic year. Though, Bank of India does not have special schemes for IIM or a concessional rate for girl students, those students who repay on time get an interest rate rebate of one percent.