Banking Notes for RBI & SBI exams

Dear readers, here we are posting some notes on General Knowledge (Banking), which will be helpful in the upcoming RBI and SBI exams.

                                    Quick Notes

Ø  FII: Foreign Institutional Investment  - The term is used most commonly in India to refer to outside companies investing in the financial markets of India. International institutional investors must register with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to participate in the market.

Ø  FDI: Foreign Direct Investment  - It is a direct investment into production or business in a country by an individual or company of another country, either by buying a company in the target country or by expanding operations of an existing business in that country.

Ø  MSF: Marginal Standing Facility - Under this scheme, banks will be able to borrow upto 1% of their respective net demand and time liabilities. The rate of interest on the amount accessed from this facility will be 100 basis points (i.e. 1%) above the repo rate. This scheme is likely to reduce volatility in the overnight rates and improve monetary transmission.

Ø  FIU: Financial Intelligence Unit set by the Government of India on 18 November 2004 as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

Ø  SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India -  SEBI is the primary governing/regulatory body for the securities market in India. All transactions in the securities market in India are governed and regulated by SEBI. Its main functions are:

1. New issues (Initial Public Offering or IPO)

2. Listing agreement of companies with stock exchanges

3. Trading mechanisms

4. Investor protection

5. Corporate disclosure by listed companies etc.

Note:  SEBI is also known as capital regulator or mutual funds regulator or market regulator. SEBI also created investors protection fund and SEBI is the only organization which regulates the credit rating agencies in India. (CRISIL and CIBIL).

Ø  IRDA: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority  - It is an autonomous apex statutory body which regulates and develops the insurance industry in India.

Ø  FINANCIAL REGULATORS IN INDIA - RBI, SEBI, FMCI (Forward Market Commission of India), IRDA etc.

Ø  ASBA:  Application Supported by Blocked Amount  -  It is a process developed by the SEBI for applying to IPO. In ASBA, an IPO applicant’s account doesn’t get debited until shares are allotted to him.

Ø  DEPB Scheme: Duty Entitlement Pass Book - It is a scheme which is offered by the Indian government to encourage exports from the country. DEPB means Duty Entitlement Pass Book to neutralise the incidence of basic and special customs duty on import content of export product.

Ø  LLP: Limited Liability Partnership, is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liability.

Ø  Balance sheet:  A financial statement that summarises a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time.

Ø  TAN: Tax Account Number, is a unique 10-digit alphanumeric code allotted by the Income Tax Department to all those persons who are required to deduct tax at the source of income.

Ø  PAN: Permanent Account Number, as per section 139A of the Act obtaining PAN is a must for the following persons:-

1. Any person whose total income or the total income of any other person in respect of which he is assessable under the Act exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to tax.

2. Any person who is carrying on any business or profession whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts are or are likely to exceed Rs. 5 lakh in any previous year.

3. Any person who is required to furnish a return of income under section 139(4) of the Act.

Ø  JLG: Joint Liability Group, when two or more persons are both responsible for a debt, claim or judgment.

Ø  IRR: Internal Rate of Return, is a rate of return used in capital budgeting to measure and compare the profitability of investments.

Ø  MICR: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition  - A 9-digit code which actually shows whether the cheque is real or fake.

Ø  UTR Number: Unique Transaction Reference number  - A unique number which is generated for every transaction in RTGS system. UTR is a 16-digit alphanumeric code. The first 4 digits are a bank code in alphabets, the 5th one is the message code, the 6th and 7th mention the year, the 8th to 10th mentions the date and the last 6 digits mention the day’s serial number of the message.

Ø  RRBs: Regional Rural Banks  - As its name signifies, RRBs are specially meant for rural areas, capital share being 50% by the central government, 15% by the state government and 35% by the scheduled bank.

Ø  MFI: Micro Finance Institutions  -  Micro Finance means providing credit/loan (micro credit) to the weaker sections of the society. A microfinance institution (MFI) is an organisation that provides financial services to the poor.

Ø  PRIME LENDING RATE: PLR is the rate at which commercial banks give loans to its prime customers (most creditworthy customers).

Ø  BASE RATE: A minimum rate that a bank is allowed to charge from the customer. Base rate differs from bank to bank. It is actually a minimum rate below which the bank cannot give loan to any customer. Earlier base rate was known as BPLR (Base Prime Lending Rate).

Ø  EMI: Equated Monthly Installment  - It is nothing but a repayment of the loan taken. A loan could be a home loan, car loan or personal loan. The monthly payment is in the form of post dated cheques drawn in favour of the lender. EMI is directly proportional to the loan taken and inversely proportional to time period. That is, if the loan amount increases the EMI amount also increases and if the time period increases the EMI amount decreases.

Ø  Basis points (bps): A basis point is a unit equal to 1/100th of a percentage point. i.e. 1 bps = 0.01%. Basis points are often used to measure changes in or differences between yields on fixed income securities, since these often change by very small amounts.

Ø  Liquidity: It refers to how quickly and cheaply an asset can be converted into cash. Money (in the form of cash) is the most liquid asset.

Ø  P-NOTES: “P” means participatory notes.  These are the instruments issued by registered foreign institutional investors (FII) to overseas investors, who wish to invest in the Indian stock markets without registering themselves with the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India - SEBI.

Ø  Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a negotiable money market instrument and issued in dematerialised form for funds deposited at a bank or other eligible financial institution for a specified time period.

Ø  Commercial Paper (CP) is an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note. It was introduced in India in 1990. Corporates and the All-India Financial Institutions are eligible to issue CP.

Ø  REER: Real Effective Exchange Rate.

Ø  NEER: Nominal Effective Exchange Rate.

Ø  LIBOR: London Inter Bank Offer Rate.

Ø  MIBOR: Mumbai Inter Bank Offer Rate.

Ø  EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer

Ø  NEFT  –  National Electronic Funds Transfer

Ø  RTGS  – Real Time Gross Settlement

Ø  ATM – Automated Teller Machine

Ø  CBS – Core Banking Solution

Ø  CORE in CBS stands for “Centralized Online Real-time Exchange.”

03:03 - By Unknown 0

Last Minute Tips for SBI PO 2014 : Part II

SBI PO 2014 exam is starting from tomorrow and the time has come when you will face the exam for which you have worked hard day and night for last so many months. One of our ardent reader Priya shares with us last minute tips for the prestigious SBI PO exam starting from tomorrow. Read on...

Hi, I am Priya, ardent commentators of BankersAdda know me as Priya_Princess. These were few tips that helped me to become Canara Bank PO and escape stupid marriage proposals.  I gave them in a comical way to help you relax from exam tension. Hope you like them.

• Pray and start – No one has the problems which you have. Say all those problems to God, wail like a little child or take a paper and write your list of problems in it. Doing this will clear your mind from any thoughts.  After that start practicing.

• Never look for last year cutoffs  –  SBI PO 2013 cutoff was 128. The previous exam had 87 as cutoff. The one who relied on that cutoff and attempted only 90 questions failed miserably.  The only good thing that happened for me while searching for last year’s cutoff was finding a great blog called BANKERS ADDA.

• Follow one way  - Before visiting BA, all I know about capsules is that they are medicines. But they are the best medicines to cure the fear of GA section. I have seen many readers ask whether this capsule is enough or not. My advice is to follow only one way/technique/method. If you read 2 or more books for the same topic, you get confused and this is where boredom creeps in. BA’s GK capsule is more than enough. Even if you get a question out of that, the world will not end.

• Play defense – Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest player who hit many centuries and posed many questions in GA section. But, did he play every ball he faced? No, in fact no batsman ever did that, not even in gully cricket. So, you can also leave some questions. There’s no problem in that. But don’t leave too many questions because there’s certainly problem in that. 

• Your pen is a magic wand – All of us have this habit. Before an exam, we buy a new pen and put it near God. Don’t do that for competitive exams. Take the pen with which you practiced. An ice skater never buys new skates ahead of a competition. They take the skates in which they practiced. You won’t believe this. Try writing a paragraph for 100 times continuously. In the 101st time, if you are stuck at any word, your pen automatically writes that word because that’s the practice you’ve given for your pen. Of course, it wouldn’t write the next word on its own. 

• Count your breaths – Keep calm, stay composed, have fun is something everyone will say to ease tension.  But no will say how. How will you keep calm if your neighbor’s son says, “Bye mummy, papa. I am going to the office.”? And your father looks at you asking, “When will you say that to me?”? How will you stay composed if your so called Sheela aunty flaunts a new sari every other weekend before your mom and says, “My son got his first salary and bought this sari for me.”? How are you going to have fun when you have your exam on 14th morning while all your friends have it on 28th or even 5th July? By counting your breaths. Each time you inhale and exhale, count them. In that way, your focus shifts towards counting rather than the nonsense around you.

• Don’t love the topics – In my coaching centre, everyone failed at seating arrangement. But, I used to solve them in the matter of seconds. Everyone used to say, “Offo! The expert is here.” So, I fell in love with seating arrangement. I used to attempt it first in reasoning. No wonder, it’s called love at FIRST sight. But, it broke my heart in SBI PO, SBI Associates PO and IBPS PO. Even a bucket of Baskin and Robbins couldn’t help with my heartbreak. Sad, but true.

• Less ‘Marked for review’ and more ‘Answered’ – Don’t play with the review option, it will be converted into answer if you don’t review it at the end.

• Make a fool of yourself – Remember that fat guy from Hangover movie. He talks within himself at the casino doing calculations mentally. Do exactly that in the exam and consume less paper. 

• Don’t get frustrated during the exam – Go with least expectations. Don’t keep targets like attempting 150 questions or so. You have nothing to gain or nothing to lose.

Wish you all the best. I have been through the phase you all are going through, so, I can understand how it feels one day before the exam (those goosebumps in the stomach... the fear of uncertainty). But, I am sure, you will also sail through like me. Do share your exam experience here will all other candidates, it will help you relieve after exam tension. All the best!

08:33 - By Unknown 0

Marketing Capsule for SBI PO 2014

Dear readers, the much awaited Marketing Capsule for SBI PO Exam is finally ready. We thank you for your patience.

The capsule consists of the Previous Year Questions of Marketing and the expected questions for the upcoming SBI PO Exam, which is specially designed by our team of experts.

Click here to Download the Marketing Capsule


Disclaimer: We have tried our best to keep the content totally error free, however, there may be some errors, which might have crept in inadvertently. We request you to inform us if you come across any error in the document, so that, we can come out with errata. In any case, Bankers Adda or Career Power should not be held responsible for any losses arising out of any such error.

06:15 - By Unknown 0

Brief Analysis of Topics Covered in GK Section in SBI PO 2014 Exam

Dear readers, here we are presenting you a brief analysis of topics which can be covered in General Awareness section in SBI PO 2014 exam.

General Awareness is the easiest and scoring section in SBI PO Exam. In GK sections questions are asked from Economy, Banking, Finance news and also questions asked from current events.

The candidates should keep an eye on latest happenings and read a daily newspaper to keep them updated with latest news. It is one of the scoring sections in SBI PO exam.  One should thoroughly learn and revise policies, programs, latest updating in economy to score well in exam.

Topics Covered in SBI PO General Awareness section

Ø  Economy + Banking + Finance

1. Theory: (Gdp +Inflation + Tax + Capital Market + Finance + Planning commission,)

2. RBI related news: (Monetary Policy etc. Cheque, Draft, Basel etc)

3. Govt. related (Budget, policies, Schemes, Committees)

4. World Economy - International

Ø  Misc: Gk – National + International

1. New Appointment - (India & World)

2. Awards & Honours

3. Sports (Cricket, Football, Hockey, Badminton, Tennis etc)

4. Books & Authors

5. Defence & Technology

Distribution of number of questions Topic wise (Economy + Misc Gk)

Topics	No. of questions can be asked
Inflation	1
Tax	1
Budget	2
Capital Market	2
Growth Rate	1
Basel	1
Govt. Schemes	2
Imp. Committees	1
Monetary Policy	2
Financial + Banking news	4
International news	2
New Appointments	1
Books & Authors	1
Person in News/Obituary	1
Awards	1
Summit	1
Sports	1
Science & Technology	1

Ø  Computer (Internet, MS- Office, Excel, Operating System, Hardware etc)

Ø  Marketing:

1. Banking policy

2. Basic concept (7Ps of Marketing).

3. Product life cycle

4. Developing stage of organization

5. Segmentation, positioning and targeting.

Distribution of number of questions in SBI PO Previous year Exam

Topics	Number of questions Asked in SBI PO 2010 Exam	Number of questions Asked in SBI PO Associate 2011 Exam
Economy	16	13
Misc: Gk	9	13
Computer	14	12
Marketing	11	12
	Total = 50	Total = 50

As we can see, out of total 50 questions, more than 30 are coming from Economy, Computer & Marketing only.  And in 2010 and 2011′s exams, the sectional cutoff for General Awareness was at max 11 marks.

In 2013 sectional cutoff for General Awareness was 14 marks for General and 10 marks for SC/ST/OBC category. 

Note: Keep checking BankersAdda.com for Banking Awareness and Current Affairs. Also we will post Quiz on Computer and Marketing Awareness.

 We will also publish Gk Capsule For SBI PO exam 15 or 20 days before the exam, which will contain past 5 months Current Affairs and Banking, this will really help in your Gk section. So keep visiting bankersadda. 

All The Best

06:12 - By Unknown 0

New Appointments of 2014

In view of the upcoming exams, today we are presenting to you the list of New Appointments of 2014. In this list, we covered all important National and International Appointments which occurred in the past 4 months of the year 2014  (January, February, March and first 3 weeks of April). This list will be helpful for your upcoming Postal Assistants / Sorting Assistants, SBI PO and SSC CGL Exams. Hope you like the post.


1. A L Banerjee - New DGP (UP)
2. Aditi Khanna - First Woman President of Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA), London
3. Ajoy Misra - MD & CEO, Tata Global Beverages Limited
4. Akhilesh Das Gupta - President (Re-Elected), Badminton Association of India (BAI)
5. Akhilesh Gupta - President of Indian Meteorological Society
6. Amitabh Kant - Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
7. Arvind Mayaram - New Finance Secretary
8. Arseniy Yatsenyuk - Interim Prime Minister of Ukraine
9. Arun Kumar Gupta - CMD, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI)
10. Ashraf Jehan - First female judge, Pakistan’s National Sharia Court
11. Chetan Tamboli - Chairman of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), Western Region
12. Devendra Kumar Pathak - Special DG, Border Security Force
13. Dinesh Sarraf - CMD of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
14. Edward Snowden - New Rector of the University of Glasgow
15. Glen Attewell - New CEO to Tesco HSC
16. G. Rohini – First Woman Chief Justice, Delhi High Court
17. H C Meena - Secretary Security, Cabinet Secretariat
18. Harish Rawat - CM of Uttrarakhand.
19. Ibrahim Mahlab - New PM of Egypt
20. Jamila Bayaz - First Women Police Chief, Afghanistan
21. Janet Yellen – Head of US Federal Reserve (1st  Woman)
22. Jatinder Bir Singh - Chairman and Managing  Director of Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB)
23. John Thompson - Chairman of Microsoft
24. Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur - Chairman of the 7th Pay Commission
25. Justice B.S. Chauhan - Judge of the Supreme Court
26. Kailash Meghwal - Speaker, Rajasthan Assembly
27. Kalyan Singh - Vice President of BJP
28. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - Chairperson, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B)
29. Lt Gen P R Kumar - Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Indian Army
30. M Teresa Kho - ADB's (Asian Development Bank) new country director for India
31. Malala Yousafzai - World Children's Prize, Sweden
32. Manoj Vaish - MD and CEO, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX)
33. Marco Lambertini - Director-General of the WWF International
34. Matteo Renzi - Italy's youngest PM
35. Mukul Mudgal - Chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC)
36. Narendra Kothari – New Chairman, NMDC
37. N P Singh - CEO, Multi Screen Media
38. N. Ramachandran - President, Indian Olympic Association
39. N. Srinivasan - Chairman of the International Cricket Council
40. Oleksandr Turchynov - Interim President of Ukraine
41. P. Madhusudan - CMD, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL)
42. Poonam Khetrapal Singh - Regional Director of World Health Organization South-East Asia Region
43. Pradeep Kumar Saxena - GM, South Western Railway
44. Priyadarshni Mohapatra - MD Avaya's India and SAARC Operations
45. R. Chandrashekhar - President, NASCOM
46. R Gandhi - Deputy Governor of RBI
47. R.K. Tiwari - Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)
48. R.M. Lodha - New Chief Justice of India
49. R.K. Dhowan - New Navy Chief
50. Rajeev Kher - Secretary in Department of Commerce
51. Rajiv Takru - New Revenue Secretary
52. Rakesh Maria - Mumbai Police Commissioner
53. Ravi Chauhan - MD, SAP India
54. S.K. Sharma - CMD of Bharat Electronics Ltd.
55. Sanjay Kirloskar - Deputy Chairman of CII, Western Region
56. Satya Nadella - CEO of Microsoft
57. Saurabh Chandra - Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
58. Shankar Venkateswaran - Chief, Tata Sustainability Group
59. Sheikh Hasina - Prime Minister of Bangladesh (Third Time)
60. Shikar Dhawan - Brand Ambassador to Canara Bank
61. Soma Mondel - First Woman Director of National Aluminium Company Ltd.
62. B.N. Sri Krishna - Chairman of Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB)
63. Sudhir Gupta - Secretary, TRAI
64. Sunil Kumar Sood - General Manager, Central Railway
65. Sushil Koirala - PM of Nepal
66. T. Nanda Kumar - Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
67. Uday Sareen - Deputy CEO, ING Vysya Bank
68. V.Kannan - CMD of Vijaya Bank
69. Vinod Sawhney - CEO of Reliance Communication (RCom)
70. Yaduvendra Mathur - CMD of Export-Import Bank of India

10:15 - By Unknown 0