Student Finance England

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a government non-departmental public body that primarily provided student loans and grants in the United Kingdom. The Student Loan Company itself divided into Student Finance England, Student Finance Wales and Student Finance NI. Most undergraduate university students in United Kingdom are eligible for student loans. The Student Loans Company was founded in the 1990/91 academic year to provide students with additional help towards living cost in the form of low interest loans. In the first year, the SLC gave loans to 180,200 students.

Students must meet two eligibility requirements to be able to get the loan from SLC; first, personal eligibility that principally concerns the student’s residency status, and second, course or institution eligibility, to meet this requirement, the student who applied for the loan must be studying for an undergraduate degree at an institution in UK that award degree or other verified higher education establishment. All eligible students are also entitled to a maintenance loan, which is designed to help pay for the living cost whilst he or she is studying at the university. This amount of loan that is given to the students is already set, with those living at home given less than and those who lives at the university will be given more. For students from low income households, as well as entitled to loan, they also entitled to a maintenance grant, which does not have to be repaid.

Banco Credicoop

Banco Credicoop founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina on February 19, 1979, trough the merger of 44 Argentine credit unions. It is now the largest cooperatively-owned bank in Argentina.

The merger was motivated largely by the adverse effect Economy Minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz's Financial Entities Law of 1977 had on the banking sector in Argentina. The policy encouraged commercial banks in Argentina to offer high-yield, exotic investments by extending the Central Bank's guarantee to losses accrued from these financial vehicles. This practice collapsed between 1980 and 1982, however, and hundreds of unregulated, non-banking financial institutions, as well as numerous banks, closed.

Banco Credicoop moves in banking, insurance and pension funds. The products that they offer are retail banking, insurance, investment, accounting and payroll, mortgages, consumer finance and credit cards. Today, with US$ 2.8 billion, Banco Credicoop is Argentina’s eleventh-largest bank by assets and ninth-largest bank by deposits. Credicoop maintains 244 branches with over six hundreds and seventy thousands members.

This institution is organized as a credit union, and operates as a non-profit cooperative. Each member is given one vote at all shareholder meetings, and the top ten depositors account for less than 10% of deposits. The credit union provides personal and business financial and accounting services; since 1980, it has issued Cabal, the only cooperatively-managed credit card in Argentina. The group also manages the Previsol Pension Fund and numerous insurers. Credicoop is a standing member of the International Co-operative Alliance.

Child Benefit

Child benefit (previously known as Children’s Allowance or Family Allowance) is social security payment payable to parents or guardians of the children under 16 years of age, or under 18 years of age if the child is in full-time education or have a disability. Child benefit is means-tested in some country.

In Australia, Child benefit payments are currently called Family Tax Benefit. Family Tax Benefit is income tested and is linked to the Australian Income tax system. It can be claimed as fortnightly payments or as an annual lump sum.

In Ireland, Child Benefit (Sochar Leanaí) is payable to parents of children under 16 years of age, or 19 years if they are in full-time education. The payment is paid by the Department of Social Protection. Sweden began a program called “family allowance” , a government fund given to family with children to encourage them to have more children and increase the birthrate as an attempt to solve the problem of dwindling population after the World War I.

In Finland, child benefit scheme was introduce in 1948 by law. Benefit is paid to for children until they turn 17, and it is only paid for children that live in Finland. There is also a supplement for single parents. The benefit is paid trough national Social Insurance Institution.

In United Kingdom, child benefit is administered by Revenue and Customs Child Benefit Office in Washington, Tyne and Wear. As of April 2010, £20.30 per week is paid for the first child (including the eldest of a multiple birth) and £13.40 per week is paid for each additional child. The same amount is currently paid without reference to earnings or savings, although higher-rate taxpayers will not receive this benefit from 2013. More than 80% of children are in families also eligible for means-tested child tax credit.

Lucky Investment

Premium bond in general is a bond that is priced higher than its par value as opposite to discounted bond. This is occurs because the interest rate on the bond is higher than the prevailing rates in the market, making the premium bond worth more than a bond paying a lower rate.

The UK’s premium bond is a lottery bond scheme by National Savings and Investments of United Kingdom. This premium bond was introduced by Harold Macmillan in his 1956 budget. The government will buy back the bond, on request for its original price. The government also pay the interest on the bond (pegged at 1.5% in July 2010) but instead of the interest being paid into individual accounts, it is paid into a prize fund from which a monthly lottery distributes tax-free prizes, or premiums, to those bond-holders whose numbers are selected randomly. The random number will be generated by ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment). The prizes raging from £50 to the top prize of £1,000,000.

Investors can purchase bonds at any time; bonds need to be held for a full calendar month after the month you buy them, e.g purchase in January eligible for March, their bonds are eligible for the draw: their numbers are entered each month, with an equal chance of winning any prize, until the bond is cashed in.

National Savings and Investments

National Savings and Investments (NS&I), formerly called the National Savings Bank, is a state owned saving bank in United Kingdom. National Savings and Investments was founded by the British government in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank, the world's first postal savings system. The aim of the bank was to allow workers "to provide for themselves against adversity and ill-health", and to provide the government with access to debt funding. In 1969 the bank was transferred from the Post Office to the Treasury and its name was changed to National Savings. The name was changed again in 2002 to National Savings and Investments.


Now as an executive agency of HM treasury the aim of National Savings and Investments is to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purposes of funding the government’s public sector borrowing requirement (i.e., the funds in excess of taxation that the government requires to fund its activities). NS&I attracts savers by offering saving products with tax free elements on some products, and a 100% guarantee from HM Treasury on all deposits. However, as any other less-risk investment, its rates are often low.


The most popular product of NS&I is Premium Bond, a lottery bond, already celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2006 with a grand celebration in which 5 times £1m jackpot draw was announced.