Commonly Asked Bank Interview Questions – Answered

Here are few other commonly asked questions in interview. All the candidates who has cleared IBPS CWE PO-II must be preparing hard for the interview. Also, Now IBPS CWE-II for Clerk Results has been announced and the candidates who cleared the exam have their interviews starting in the month of March 2013.

So, to help the aspirants prepare well for the interviews, we tried to answer some other few most commonly asked interview question which can help a candidate to create his impression on the interviewer. Note that this is just to help the candidates, don’t recite them.

1) What do you know about Banking?

A bank is a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities. Banks are a fundamental component of the financial system, and are also active players in financial markets. The essential role of a bank is to connect those who have capital (such as investors or depositors), with those who seek capital (such as individuals wanting a loan, or businesses wanting to grow).

2)  Being a B.Tech Graduate Why Bank Jobs?

Nowadays, Banks are not restricted to just finance work. Tell them that you are not changing your stream but you are widening your area of expertise.  Good jobs are not easy to find and bank  job is a good one. Secondly all banking is applied ‘arithmetic’ and speculative number game and a B.Tech is thorough in both. Also,  mention about the uncertain future of software companies compared to the high growth witnessed in banking industry. You should manipulate your answer to prove that your engineering degree would be beneficial for you in interacting with people and creating more business relationships for them.

3) How to answer the Puzzles type Questions!

Although these are not so common, but may be asked to anyone in an Interview. Here the interviewer doesn’t really want to hear exact answer from you rather they want to see if you are able to analyze the correct problem or are you just trying to hurry up without taking the time to analyze and putting some effort. They just want to see your practical approach that will be useful during you job period.

So If asked any puzzle type question, you should not Hurry up in telling the answer even if you know it. Even if you do not know the answer (and even can not find the answer), do not hurry up in saying NO. Rather you should draw the picture of problem on a paper(even if you know the answer) and take some time to analyze it (ask them if you do not understand it correctly). It will make them feel that you believe in analyzing the client requirement before reaching to any conclusion, which is a must.

So you should answer these questions by taking time, drawing it and asking them for clarifications. This will surely fill the interviewer’s purpose.

4) Explain Role of PO & Clerk in a Bank:.

Role of PO:

A Probationary Officer (PO) in the bank is the starting level appointment for bank officers. The PO’s have a one or two years probation period during which they are given exposure to various important functions of the bank such as Loans & Advances, Foreign exchange, Credit Rating, Treasury, Risk Management, IT, Marketing etc. They have to report to their immediate senior officer,who is responsible for the closely monitor & evaluate the performance of him/her for a certain period of time.

• Actually a Bank PO can be asked to do anything related to banking till the completion of its probation period. During training or probation period they are trained for accounting, marketing, finance, investment as well as billing.
• After the Completion of Probation period, the Bank PO becomes Assistant Bank Manager and may be posted in any branch across the country to handle daily customer transaction like passing a cheque, cash management, draft issuance etc

For More details, Go through the post “Role of PO in banks”

Role of Clerk:

In any public sector banks clerks are the first person to contact for any queries & guidance.
The person inside the withdrawal & deposit counters are mostly of clerical grade. This is the why some banks mention clerk as single window operators (SWO)

As a Bank Clerk, you could be separated into one of the following:

• Interest Clerk: recording interest owed to saving accounts customers and interest owed to the bank from loans and other investments.
• Loan Clerk: recording and organizing loan information.
•  Statement Clerk: preparing the monthly balance sheets and checking account of customers as and when needed.
• Exchange Clerks: working on international accounts, translating foreign currency into home currency and vice versa.
•  Security Clerk: recording, filing and looking after stocks, bonds and other investment documents.
• Bookkeeping Clerk: taking care of records for each customer’s account.

They are also responsible for accepting payments, sanction withdrawals, verify cheques, issue demand drafts & other banking related services to customers.

5) Your Salary Expectations?

Salary negotiation is a tough and delicate matter. Preferably speaking, you should avoid going into this topic until the later stage of the recruitment when you are being offered the job. If you request a salary higher than the range for the job, the interviewer will tell you you’re high, and you’ve just lost money. If you request a salary lower than the range, the interviewer will say nothing, and you’ve just lost money.

Hence, research on the salary range in your field to have a rough estimate of how much you should be earning. Give a large range rather than a specific amount if you have to answer it. An alternative is to pose the question back at the interviewer by asking what kind of salary does the position warrants. At other times, interviewers might just be testing you to see if money is the only thing that matters. So, do emphasize that your priority lies with the nature of the job and not the salary.

6) Do you have any questions for us?

This is normally the last question posed to you, so it’s your chance to finish the interview elegantly. Don’t reply that you have got nothing to ask. Doing otherwise might leave the impression to the interviewer that you are not exactly keen to get the job. The contrary side to all of this is that this question is actually a huge opportunity for you.  If you ask the *right* questions, you can not only get as much information as possible to find out if the position is a good fit for you personally, but you can show the interviewers that you are a critical thinker and a problem solver.

Also, Go through another post relating to the same purpose- “Top 5 Interview Questions-Answered”

You can also refer Interview Cracker: Bank P. O. Clerks and Other Bank Book as this book contains many good commonly asked Bank interview questions.

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