The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is an autonomous institute, which was set up by the Reserve Bank of India, Central Financial Institutions and Public Sector Banks. It saw its inception when the Indian banking industry adopted a new selection system in the post-nationalisation period. It initially came about as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and additionally as a Public Trust under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. Today it has established itself a reputation of being a premier institute that conducts assessment for personnel selection at various levels for several banking and financial organisations. Through this blog, let us delve into the roles played by IBPS and how it is assisting organisations in the selection of personnel at various levels.

An Overview of IBPS

Backstory: How did IBPS come about?

Back in 1969, an autonomous institute under the name National Institute of Bank Management came about. It is an apex institute established to provide research, training, consultancy and education in bank management. In a subsequent initiative, a vertical dedicated to selection and training purposes named Personnel Selection Service  (PSS) was created. The PSS evolved into an autonomous body as IBPS (Indian Banking Personnel Institute) dedicated to training and recruitment.

The Indian Banking Personnel Selection was instituted to assist client organisations in their crucial operation of recruiting, employee promotion and placements by adopting best practices and suitable assessment tools, recording answers/ responses and processing examination results in highly accurate, confidential and speedily. The institute, since its inception, has been conducting high-stakes examinations which are of large scale. The IBPS employs psychometric expertise coupled with modern technology in their operation. It has been able to structure its processes into an inclusive platform accessible to all layers of aspiring candidates across the country.

The institute is also a Member of the Indian Bank’s Association. Today, tasked with the responsibility of conducting various banking recruitment exams across varied levels, including Probationary Officer (PO), Specialist Officer (SO), Clerical Positions, etc. IBPS has a tradition of interacting with professionals and academic organisations, particularly in banking and financial fields, and State/central government level committees, engaging in insights sharing and research activities. These insights are further incorporated into the structuring and designing of exam processes.

The Role of IBPS

IBPS plays a significant role, particularly for the BFSI sector, including, RBI, NABARD, SEBI, GIC, SBI, etc. The institute is generally known for administering and conducting various recruitment exams. IBPS follows a well-structured process for recruiting and selection process, typically involving three stages: Preliminary, Mains and Interview. Each stage is structured and designed to test the candidate’s skills, knowledge and awareness around the areas of computer, general aptitude, quantitative aptitude, reasoning ability, financial knowledge, English and communication skills.

The primary role of IBPS is to render a standard and transparent recruitment process for participating banks. The recruitment process is broad and covers the following:

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Common Recruitment Process: With 11 banks participating, IBPS holds a recruitment process for the positions of PO, SO, Clerk and RRBs.

Administering and conducting recruitment exams and interviews: The institute has the onus of administering, organising and conducting online written exams and personal interviews for diverse positions and roles across the country. IBPS is responsible for the whole process of application, question paper preparation, conducting exams and evaluating candidates’ performance.

Ensuring fairness and transparency: Another primary and crucial role of IBPS is to ensure all the stages of the recruitment process are carried out in a fair and transparent manner. To ensure transparency and integrity, the institute follows strict guidelines and best practices.

Providing a Unified recruitment process: IBPS came about to assist and provide different banks with a common and centralised platform for their recruitment process. This also gave applicants the scope to apply for different positions and different banks through a single process of examination.

Apprenticeship and Skill Development: IBPS also play a crucial role in the banking sector by conducting skill development and capacity-building programs. The institute conducts various training programs, research activities and workshops, which aid in upskilling of bank professionals.

Other Key Roles IBPS Performs in the Banking Sector

IBPS also offers extensive services to banks in both public and private sector, RRBs and Foreign banks. Its servive extends to other financial institutions like Insurance companies, co-operative banks, academic instutions, etc. run by both private and state-owned companies. The services include:

• Assist banks and financial institutions/organisations in administering exams for employment and promotions.
• Render assessment facilities to companies to determine candidates’ qualifications and experiences suitable for different roles.
• Conducts workshops for individuals who develop their own exam questions
• Provide training programs for senior staff to help in the development of their observational abilities.
• Conducting promotion examinations
• Providing expertise services to banks for conducting group exercises and interviews effectively

Role of IBPS in Common Recruitment Process (CRP)

IBPS primarily conducts a transparent hiring process across a diverse range of roles including, PO (Probationary Officer) SO (Specialist Officer), Clerks and RRB Officers. Let us dissect each exam to understand the role that IBPS plays.

IBPS PO: IBPS conducts the IBPS PO exams every year to recruit Probationary Officers/ Management Trainees for the 11 public sector participating banks. These professionals are hired to supervise bank operations handle and manage customer relations, and secure a smooth flow of operation.  As per the IBPS mandate, the recruitment process involves three stages: Preliminary, Mains, and Interview. To ensure fairness and standards, applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in any discipline and must be in the age group of 20–30 years. Selected candidates undergo a probationary period of 2 years, where they will receive training and be evaluated for leadership roles. Candidates who completes the probationary period may look forward to landing senior-level roles like Zonal/Branch manager, etc. in the long run.

IBPS Clerk: The Clerk exam is conducted by IBPS every year to hire candidates for clerical positions in the various participating public sector banks in the country. Their job roles typically involve data entry tasks, transaction record keeping, cross-selling bank services and products (mutual funds, loans, insurance), customer service activities, issuing cheques and passbooks, etc. The exam’s mandatory requirements as maintained by IBPS include a graduate degree in any discipline, computer literacy, and state/union territory official language proficiency. Applicants must belong to the age group of 20–28 years. There are age relaxations for candidates belonging to reserved categories. The recruitment for IBPS Clerk has only stages- preliminary and mains.

IBPS Specialist Officers: IBPS also conducts the IBPS SO exam every year to recruit competent candidates for the position of Specialist Officers for the various participating public sector banks. The Institute mandates candidates vying for this job to have specialised qualifications and adequate technical knowledge to be eligible for the recruitment. IBPS SO stands as one of the competitive banking exams. Candidates must also be between the age of 20–30 years and must have the required qualification specific to the roles. IBPS holds three stages of examination and evaluation for the SO post-prelims, mains and interview. The prelims exam focuses on testing the candidate’s potential in general awareness, quantitative aptitude, English language and reasoning. The mains exam is domain-centric, with questions focusing on specific domains. Candidates who make it through the recruitment will go on to become Agriculture Field Officer, IT Officer, HR Officer, Law Officer, Marketing Officer, etc.

IBPS RRB (Regional Rural Banks): This is another banking exam that the IBPS conducts every year for recruiting employees for various positions across the regional rural banks in the country. IBPS holds the recruitment examination for the levels of clerical and officer positions, divided into Officer Scale and Officer Assistant in the scales of I, II, III and office assistants. The IBPS mandates applicants for the IBPS RRB to have a bachelor’s degree, with an additional degree for specialised roles. They must fall within the age category of 18–40 years. There may be requirements for local language proficiency as many of the RRBs demand for the various positions. There are two stages for candidates to be inducted to the post-first is the preliminary exam followed by the mains.

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The various positions for which IBPS conducts the IBPS RRB Recruitment exam include:

• Marketing Manager
• Officer Scale I
• Agriculture Officer (Grade II)
• Chartered Accountant (Grade-III)
• Officer (Grade-III)
• IT Officer (Grade II)
• Law Officer (Grade-II)
• Banking Officer Scale -II
• Treasury Manager
• Office Assistant

IBPS PSBs

The 11 Public Sector banks participating in IBPS are:

• Bank of Baroda
• Bank of India
• Bank of Maharashtra
• Canara Bank
• Central Bank of India
• Indian Overseas Bank
• Indian Bank
• Punjab and Sind Bank
• Punjab National Bank
• UCO Bank
• Union Bank of India

IBPS RRBs

There are 43 Regional Rural banks participating in the IBPS recruitment process to hire employees for their banks.

Services of IBPS To Public and Private Banks

Personnel Selection Services: Recruitment, Placement and Promotion: IBPS helps organisations in their personnel selection processes on request. Their assistance includes:

• Formatting online application
• Selection procedure designing
• Conducting online exams
• Marking and scoring of tests (objective)
• Evaluating descriptive papers
• Conducting group exercises
• Nominating experts for interviews and results processing.

Assessment Centres: IBPS employs an Assessment Centre methodology wherein a group of applicants or participants in an exercise, training or job-simulated- tasks are subjected to observation and assessment, and their behaviours are recorded by a team of trained assessors. IBPS provides this methodology for the following purposes:

• Selecting management cadres personnel
• Discovering levels of competencies for various job roles
• Identification of gaps in employees’ competencies and skills for development purposes

Capacity-Building Training: IBPS also renders its expertise in assessing group dynamics and interpersonal skills to various financial institutions, including academic institutions. This expertise is typically crucial in conducting interviews and exercises. Working on its objective to ensure purposeful interview interactions, IBPS provides training to client organisations for developing and enhancing interviewing skills for executives. IBPS also offer training facilities to functionaries at the senior levels to make them competent assessors in selection processes or group exercises.

Nominating Experts: IBPS plays a significant role by maintaining a database of experts sourced from diverse sectors, including banking, academia, etc. IBPS offers its service of nominating subject matter experts on request by organisations for various assessment processes.

Besides the above-stated roles, IBPS also conducts conferences with Chairmans of RRBs and Public Sector Banks’ HR heads regularly to update and adjust the recruitment processes.

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Conclusion:

IBPS is an autonomous body that is tasked with the responsibility of identifying and hiring the most qualified potentials and talents in the country to fill various positions across the prestigious financial and banking institutions in the country. The institute is constantly committed to improving, updating and aligning with the contemporary needs and requirements in personnel selection and recruitment processes. We have thoroughly covered the various roles and activities IBPS performs in the Indian Banking system.