SBI Interview Questions

Why do you want to enter banking?

State Bank Of India (SBI) model interview Questions

* You need to talk about Banking – what the interviewer seeks for is a person who is flexible to be along with the given timings, someone who can cope up with writing bits and bobs or a person who can benefit them with more development .Your answer can have following bulleted points.

Banking is a fast changing environment
Retail banking is now very competitive – from telephone banking, retailers and etc Banking is thus now largely sales driven.
# You can even talk about IT getting changes and clearing banks offers a wide range of career opportunities for graduates – not just in branch banking but also in financial services, consultancy and corporate banking.

Have you applied to any other areas apart from banking?

Here off course your answer will hold some other finance or sales and marketing careers – insurance or accountancy, altogether these careers should have skills related to banking.

How do you feel about committing yourself to another three years of exams?

The professional examinations that you will almost certainly be required to take as part of your training are not always difficult in themselves, but do require determination and focus- especially as much of your study will be done in the evenings after a hard days work.

You should also be aware of the range of qualifications open to you – many of the large clearing banks offer the opportunity to gain qualifications in marketing, personnel or accountancy – not just banking.

Tell me about an experience in which you had to use tact?
Tact and diplomacy are important qualities in retail banking – the customer is (almost!) always right. You may have to tell an account holder diplomatically why they can’t have a loan for example, without provoking them into moving their account elsewhere.
To answer this type of question, think through everything you have done in the last five years – school, university, sports, clubs, societies, travel, vacation jobs etc. and try to think of situations where you had to demonstrate this and other qualities – do this before your interview.
If you have completed a number of employer application forms, then you should already have done this as this type of question is now common on application forms.

Who are our major competitors and what differences do you notice in our products?
The company will be expecting that you have done your research on the industry generally. You should be familiar with the bank’s products and services – literature on these can be picked up at any branch. Read the banks brochures and annual reports – these may be in the careers information room.

Be aware of current trends in the market and try to find out what each bank is doing in these areas.

What is SLR?
Every bank is required to maintain at the close of business every day, a minimum proportion of their Net Demand and Time Liabilities as liquid assets in the form of cash, gold and un-encumbered approved securities. The ratio of liquid assets to demand and time liabilities is known as Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). Present SLR is 24%. (reduced w.e.f. 8/11/208, from earlier 25%) RBI is empowered to increase this ratio up to 40%. An increase in SLR also restrict the bank’s leverage position to pump more money into the economy.

What is SLR ? (For Non Bankers)
SLR stands for Statutory Liquidity Ratio. This term is used by bankers and indicates the minimum percentage of deposits that the bank has to maintain in form of gold, cash or other approved securities. Thus, we can say that it is ratio of cash and some other approved to liabilities (deposits) It regulates the credit growth in India.

What are Repo rate and Reverse Repo rate?
Repo (Repurchase) rate is the rate at which the RBI lends shot-term money to the banks. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. Therefore, we can say that in case, RBI wants to make it more expensive for the banks to borrow money, it increases the repo rate; similarly, if it wants to make it cheaper for banks to borrow money, it reduces the repo rate

What are Repo rate and Reverse Repo rate?
Repo (Repurchase) rate is the rate at which the RBI lends shot-term money to the banks. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive. Therefore, we can say that in case, RBI wants to make it more expensive for the banks to borrow money, it increases the repo rate; similarly, if it wants to make it cheaper for banks to borrow money, it reduces the repo rate

Thus, we can conclude that Repo Rate signifies the rate at which liquidity is injected in the banking system by RBI, whereas Reverse repo rate signifies the rate at which the central bank absorbs liquidity from the banks.

What is the difference between Bank Rate and Repo Rate?

Bank Rate vs Repo Rate
Bank Rate is the rate at which RBI allows finance to commercial banks in India. There are difference types of refinance that can be availed by banks and these are linked to Bank Rate. Thus, banks can borrow at this rate only to the extent of their eligibility for refinance.

On the other hand, Repo is a money market instrument, which enables collateralised short term borrowing and lending through sale/purchase operations in debt instruments. Under a repo transaction, a holder of securities sells them to an investor with an agreement to repurchase at a predetermined date and rate. In the case of a repo, the forward clean price of the bonds is set in advance at a level which is different from the spot clean price by adjusting the difference between repo interest and coupon earned on the security. In the money market, this transaction is nothing but collateralised lending as the terms of the transaction are structured to compensate for the funds lent and the cost of the transaction is the repo rate. Thus, a bank can borrow under repo provided he has the extra securities which it can lend temporarily to RBI for borrowing short term funds.

What is relation between Inflation and Bank interest Rates?
Now a days, you might have heard lot of these terms and usage on inflation and the bank interest rates. Bank interest rate depends on many other factors, out of that the major one is inflation. Whenever you see an increase on inflation, there will be an increase of interest rate also

What is a bank?
A bank is a financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money. It is an institution for receiving, keeping, and lending money

What is the activity of Banks?
Banks act as payment agents by conducting checking or current accounts for customers, paying cheques drawn by customers on the bank, and collecting cheques deposited to customers’ current accounts. Banks also enable customer payments via other payment methods such as telegraphic transfer, EFTPOS, and ATM.

Banks borrow money by accepting funds deposited on current account, accepting term deposits and by issuing debt securities such as banknotes and bonds. Banks lend money by making advances to customers on current account, by making installment loans, and by investing in marketable debt securities and other forms of money lending.

Banks provide almost all payment services, and a bank account is considered indispensable by most businesses, individuals and governments. Non-banks that provide payment services such as remittance companies are not normally considered an adequate substitute for having a bank account.

Banks borrow most funds from households and non-financial businesses, and lend most funds to households and non-financial businesses, but non-bank lenders provide a significant and in many cases adequate substitute for bank loans, and money market funds, cash management trusts and other non-bank financial institutions in many cases provide an adequate substitute to banks for lending savings to.

What is Banking Business?
“Banking Business” means the business of receiving money on current or deposit account, paying and collecting cheques drawn by or paid in by customers, the making of advances to customers, and includes such other business as the Authority may prescribe for the purposes of this Act.