21Sep 2026
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Banking and insurance: what is live
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Government Exams
Banking
Banking recruitment in India runs through three broad channels: the IBPS common process for most public sector banks, the State Bank of India’s own recruitment, and the Reserve Bank’s officer entry. The first two test aptitude under severe time pressure; the third tests economics and finance in writing, and is a genuinely different examination.
For candidates preparing across several of these, the good news is that the syllabi overlap almost completely. The difference is in structure — sectional timing, interview stages, and whether the paper rewards speed or depth — and it is the structure that should shape your plan.
Banking and insurance · checked 19 September 2026
Banking and insurance exams this month, from the official portals
Notifications, application windows, exam dates, answer keys and results as the conducting bodies published them, each with its source and a link to the exam guide.
The landscape
How banking recruitments differ
| Exam | Cadre | Interview | What it really tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBPS PO | Officer | Yes | Speed in prelims, depth and banking awareness in mains |
| IBPS Clerk | Clerical | No | Calculation speed and financial awareness |
| SBI PO | Officer | Yes, plus group exercise | Adaptability to unfamiliar question framing |
| SBI Clerk | Clerical | No | Speed, accuracy and local language proficiency |
| IBPS RRB | Both | Officer scales only | Reasoning and numerical ability — no English in prelims; local language of the state |
| RBI Grade B | Officer | Yes | Economics and finance, written descriptively |
Two of these sit apart from the rest. IBPS RRB removes English from the preliminary stage entirely, which advantages candidates strong in reasoning and mathematics and penalises those relying on language to carry them. RBI Grade B is not an aptitude test at all — it is two academic subject papers plus a writing paper, and preparing for it with banking-exam material will not work.
2026 cycle
Bank exam notifications 2026: where each recruitment stands
Checked 15 September 2026 against the notifications on ibps.in and the SBI careers page. IBPS examination dates are from its calendar of 16 January 2026 and are tentative until the call letter.
| Exam | Notification | Registration | Examinations | Vacancies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBPS PO (CRP PO/MT-XVI) | 1 July 2026 | 1–21 July 2026 | Prelims 22–23 August; mains 4 October; interview November–December 2026 | 6,715 |
| IBPS Clerk / CSA (CRP CSA-XVI) | 1 August 2026 | 1–21 August 2026 | Prelims 10–11 October; mains 27 December 2026 | 11,403 |
| IBPS RRB (CRP RRBs-XV) | 1 September 2026 | 1–21 September 2026 | Officer prelims 21–22 November; OA prelims 6, 12, 13 December; mains 20 December 2026 and 30 January 2027 | 13,745 |
| SBI PO (CRPD/PO/2026-27/09) | 18 June 2026 | 18 June – 8 July 2026 | Prelims July–August; mains 12 September 2026; Phase III to follow | 1,500 |
| SBI Clerk / Junior Associate (CRPD/CR/2026-27/17) | 11 August 2026 | 11–31 August 2026 (special drive 7–27 August) | Prelims September 2026; mains to follow | 7,967 plus 1,538 backlog |
| Exam | Prelims | Sectional cut-off in prelims | What builds the merit |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBPS PO | English 30/30, Quant 35/30, Reasoning 35/40 — 100 marks, 3 × 20 minutes | Yes | Mains 200 + descriptive 25, then interview 100; weighted 80:20 |
| IBPS Clerk | English 30, Numerical 35, Reasoning 35 — 100 marks, 3 × 20 minutes | Yes | Mains 200 (160 questions, 125 minutes); no interview |
| IBPS RRB | Reasoning 40 + Numerical/Quant 40 — 80 marks, 45 minutes | Yes | Mains 200; officers add a 100-mark interview weighted 80:20 |
| SBI PO | English 40, Quant 30, Reasoning 30 — 100 marks, 3 × 20 minutes | No | Mains 200 + descriptive 30 (75 per cent) and group exercise and interview 50 (25 per cent) |
| SBI Clerk | English 30, Numerical 35, Reasoning 35 — 100 marks, 3 × 20 minutes | No | Mains 200 (190 questions, 2 hours 40 minutes), aggregate only; no interview |
Pay is the same across the public sector banks: Probationary Officers join Junior Management Grade Scale I at a basic of ₹48,480 on the ₹48,480–85,920 scale (SBI adds four advance increments and states a cost to company of about ₹20.43 lakh a year at Mumbai), and clerks join the ₹24,050–64,480 scale at ₹26,730 for graduates with total starting emoluments of about ₹46,000 a month at a metro. The exam guides below carry the full tables, eligibility, vacancies by bank or state, the application procedure and free mock tests on the 2026 patterns.
What decides outcomes
Three structural facts worth internalising
- Prelims marks almost never carry forward — in IBPS and SBI recruitment, the preliminary examination only decides who sits the mains. Preparing exclusively for prelims is the most common strategic error in banking preparation.
- Sectional timing changes everything — twenty minutes per section means the paper is a selection exercise, not a solving exercise. Untimed practice trains the wrong skill entirely.
- Banking awareness is cumulative — it is a large block of mains marks that depends on having followed the news for months, and it cannot be recovered in the weeks between the prelims result and the mains.
Preparation
One plan for several exams
Because the aptitude content is shared, the efficient approach is a single preparation with exam-specific work added in the fortnight before each paper. What that core preparation should contain is fairly settled: daily puzzle practice, daily data interpretation, daily calculation drilling, and daily banking and economic awareness from a single running source.
Exam guides
Exams in this category
Banking exams
Each exam carries its syllabus, pattern, previous papers, mock tests, preparation guide and study material.
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Questions
Banking — FAQs
Which bank exams have notifications out in 2026?
All five of the major ones. SBI PO was advertised on 18 June 2026 (1,500 vacancies, mains on 12 September), IBPS PO on 1 July (6,715 vacancies, prelims 22–23 August and mains 4 October), IBPS Clerk on 1 August (11,403 vacancies, prelims 10–11 October), SBI Clerk on 11 August (7,967 vacancies plus a 1,538-post backlog drive, prelims in September) and IBPS RRB on 1 September 2026 (13,745 vacancies, prelims in November–December, registration until 21 September).
What is the bank exam pattern for prelims and mains?
Every IBPS and SBI prelims is a 100-mark, one-hour paper of English, quantitative or numerical ability and reasoning on three 20-minute timers — except IBPS RRB, which is 80 marks of reasoning and numerical ability in 45 minutes with no English. IBPS applies sectional cut-offs in prelims; SBI does not. Mains papers are 200 marks on separately timed sections and build the merit list; the PO exams add a descriptive paper and an interview (with a group exercise at SBI), the clerical exams have no interview. All objective papers deduct 0.25 marks per wrong answer.
Which banking exam should I target first?
Usually IBPS PO or IBPS Clerk, because the common process fills the largest number of posts and its structure is the most representative of banking recruitment generally. A preparation aimed at IBPS PO covers SBI PO, both clerical exams and IBPS RRB with modest additions. RBI Grade B is the exception and should be treated as a separate project, since it tests economics and finance in writing rather than aptitude under time.
Do banking prelims marks count towards final selection?
In IBPS and SBI recruitment, no. The preliminary examination is a qualifying screen that decides who sits the main examination, and the merit list is built from the mains and, where applicable, the interview. This is the single most important strategic fact in banking preparation, because it means the mains syllabus — including banking awareness and data interpretation depth — should be studied from the beginning rather than after the prelims result.
How is IBPS RRB different from the other banking exams?
Its preliminary paper contains only reasoning and numerical ability — there is no English section at all. That advantages candidates whose English is weak but whose quantitative and reasoning ability is strong, and it penalises those with weak reasoning, since reasoning makes up half the paper with no language section to compensate. Its general awareness also carries a distinct rural and agricultural banking emphasis that mainstream banking material does not cover.
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