Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and Gov. Ed Rendell are expected to announce today that they will commit an additional $150 million over the next two years to a program that could create 3,750 jobs in Pennsylvania.

The Citizens Job Bank, launched in 2004 with $100 million, provides low-interest loans to companies that agree to expand by adding jobs. Since it began, the program has been responsible for 4,100 new jobs at 37 companies statewide, Citizens said.

The announcement of the Job Bank expansion was scheduled to be made at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where Rotem USA, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motors Group, will receive a $5 million Job Bank loan to create 200 jobs.

Terms of the expanded program require companies to create one new job for each $40,000 borrowed. Loans during the first year will be offered at a fixed rate of 4.99 percent, nearly 3 percent below the current prime rate. During the first two years of the program, the loans were offered at 1.5 percent below the prime rate.

The loans range from a minimum of $1 million to a maximum of $10 million, and the jobs must be created within three years of the loan.

PNC Financial Services Group last July announced a similar program, PNC's Pennsylvania Working Capital Growth Fund, which makes available loans of $10,000 to $2 million at below-market interest rates to companies that add jobs or expand operations.

Among the businesses that participated in the first Citizens Job Bank were 12 companies in the Pittsburgh region that borrowed a total $25.7 million and created 1,027 jobs, including American Textile, Benshaw, Frontier Steel and Medrad in Allegheny County; Centria in Beaver County; Oberg, Penn United, TCC Pennwest and Three Rivers Aluminum (Traco) in Butler County; and Lehigh Specialty Melting, FS-Elliot and Maronda Homes in Westmoreland County.