INDIAN BANKING RADAR (IBR) IBPS PO MAINS INTELLIGENCE MOCK

🔥 PLATINUM SERIES 2.0 | VOL. 180

📅 26 SEPTEMBER 2026 | SATURDAY

🎯 TARGET EXAMS

IBPS PO | SBI PO | IBPS RRB | RBI | NABARD

⚡ 20 QUESTIONS | 20 MARKS | 15–18 MINUTES

❌ NEGATIVE MARKING: 0.25 MARK FOR EACH WRONG ANSWER

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 TODAY'S INTELLIGENCE FOCUS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💰 CASA, Deposit Pricing & Cost of Funds

📊 LCR & Short-Term Liquidity

🏦 NSFR & Stable Funding

🌾 Priority Sector Lending

🏭 MSME Credit & Credit Guarantee

⚖️ SARFAESI & Recovery

📑 IBC & Resolution

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 SECTION A — INTELLIGENCE TEST

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Q1. A bank wants to reduce its marginal cost of deposits while strengthening customer relationships. Which strategy is most directly aligned with this objective:

A. Increase reliance on short-term market borrowings

B. Offer the highest rate on all term deposits

C. Increase CASA through transaction-linked banking relationships and service quality

D. Replace retail deposits with bulk deposits

E. Restrict digital transactions to reduce operating costs

Q2. A bank has eligible HQLA of ₹240 crore and adjusted net cash outflows of ₹200 crore for the prescribed stress period. Its LCR is:

A. 120%

B. 83.33%

C. 40%

D. 140%

E. 100%

Q3. A bank has financed a significant proportion of relatively illiquid long-term assets using unstable short-term funding. Which regulatory measure most directly addresses this structural funding mismatch:

A. LCR

B. CRR

C. SLR

D. Capital Conservation Buffer

E. NSFR

Q4. A loan to an enterprise appears to fall within an eligible Priority Sector category. Before including it in PSL reporting, what should the bank establish:

A. That the loan is below a particular internal sanction limit

B. That the borrower, activity, purpose and applicable regulatory conditions satisfy the relevant PSL criteria

C. That the borrower maintains a current account with the bank

D. That collateral is not available

E. That the loan carries a concessional interest rate

Q5. An eligible MSME borrower has obtained credit supported by a credit-guarantee scheme. The borrower subsequently defaults. Which statement most accurately describes the guarantee mechanism:

A. The bank automatically recovers the entire outstanding amount from the guarantor

B. The guarantee makes the underlying loan risk-free from the date of sanction

C. The bank can dispense with post-sanction monitoring

D. The guarantee provides specified support subject to the scheme's eligibility, coverage, exclusions and claim conditions

E. The guarantee replaces the need to assess the borrower's repayment capacity

Q6. A secured creditor proposes enforcement of a security interest after borrower default. Before proceeding under the applicable statutory framework, the bank should primarily ensure that:

A. The statutory requirements, valid security and prescribed procedural conditions have been satisfied

B. The borrower has no other bank account

C. The branch has achieved its recovery target

D. The borrower has not previously requested restructuring

E. The account has remained overdue for exactly one year

Q7. A corporate debtor enters the insolvency resolution process under the IBC. A resolution plan proposes continuation of the viable business with restructuring of creditor claims. Which statement is most appropriate:

A. IBC requires immediate liquidation once default occurs

B. Every creditor must necessarily receive 100% of its admitted claim

C. The process seeks resolution and value maximisation subject to the provisions of the Code

D. All creditor rights permanently cease once CIRP begins

E. A resolution plan automatically converts every debt into equity

Q8. During customer due diligence, a bank finds that the registered account holder is a company controlled through several layers of ownership. Which aspect is particularly important for KYC purposes:

A. Identifying only the company's authorised signatory

B. Identifying only the company's registered office

C. Verifying only the company's annual turnover

D. Obtaining only the latest audited balance sheet

E. Identifying the beneficial owner(s) in accordance with the applicable KYC requirements

Q9. A customer's declared business involves ordinary domestic trade. The account suddenly records numerous rapid transfers between apparently unrelated accounts, followed by withdrawals inconsistent with the customer's profile. No individual transaction necessarily crosses a reporting threshold. What is the most appropriate AML response:

A. Ignore the activity because no individual transaction crosses the threshold

B. Assess the overall pattern against the customer's profile and apply risk-based monitoring and escalation where warranted

C. Inform the customer that the bank has conclusively established money laundering

D. Immediately close the account without examination

E. Treat the transactions as normal because sufficient balance was available

Q10. A depositor dies leaving a valid nomination for the deposit account. Which statement best describes the operational role of nomination:

A. It finally determines inheritance rights under all circumstances

B. It automatically makes the nominee a joint holder

C. It extinguishes all possible claims of legal heirs

D. It facilitates settlement/payment by the bank subject to applicable law and prescribed procedures

E. It makes the nominee personally liable for all debts of the deceased

Q11. A bank's locker facility experiences repeated instances of access records being incomplete. No customer has yet reported a loss. From an operational-control perspective, the most appropriate response is:

A. Ignore the issue until a customer reports a loss

B. Strengthen access controls, record maintenance and supervisory review

C. Stop maintaining locker access records because they are not financial transactions

D. Allow customers to maintain their own access records

E. Transfer responsibility entirely to the security agency

Q12. Under the Cheque Truncation System, the physical cheque is replaced substantially by electronic transmission of its image and relevant data. What is the most direct operational benefit:

A. Faster clearing with reduced physical movement and handling-related risk

B. Automatic guarantee of payment by the collecting bank

C. Elimination of cheque-return risk

D. Conversion of every cheque into an electronic fund transfer

E. Elimination of the need for authentication and verification

Q13. A customer asks why an RTGS transfer is described as "gross settlement." Which explanation is correct:

A. All transactions are first accumulated and settled at the end of the day

B. Only international transactions are settled through RTGS

C. RTGS transactions are settled only after the NEFT batch cycle

D. Eligible transactions are settled individually rather than being netted against other transactions

E. RTGS is a cheque-clearing mechanism operated through physical instruments

Q14. A customer receives a call claiming to be from the bank. The caller says an unauthorised UPI payment will be reversed if the customer shares an OTP and enters the UPI PIN. What is the safest response:

A. Share the OTP but never the PIN

B. Enter the PIN only after confirming the caller's identity

C. Refuse to disclose credentials and contact the bank through an authorised channel

D. Enter the PIN if the caller knows recent transaction details

E. Follow the caller's instructions if the amount involved is small

Q15. A merchant platform stores a token representing a customer's card instead of storing the actual card number for permitted transactions. What is the principal technology involved:

A. Securitisation

B. Card tokenisation

C. Credit scoring

D. Cheque truncation

E. Loan syndication

Q16. A customer provides consent under the Account Aggregator framework for specified financial information to be shared with an authorised financial information user. Which principle is central to this framework:

A. The Account Aggregator obtains permanent ownership of the customer's data

B. All participating institutions can access the customer's complete financial history

C. Consent is required only when the first account is opened

D. Data sharing is consent-based and limited to the permitted information flow

E. The customer cannot withdraw control once information has been shared

Q17. A bank discovers that a customer's overdue amount has been incorrectly reported to a Credit Information Company. Which action should form the immediate control response:

A. Verify the underlying records and initiate correction through the prescribed reporting/dispute-resolution process

B. Wait until the next annual reporting cycle

C. Close the customer's loan account

D. Classify the customer as a wilful defaulter

E. Ask the customer to approach another lender

Q18. A bank has a substantial volume of fixed-rate assets and liabilities that reprice at different speeds. Market interest rates change sharply. Which framework should management primarily use to assess the impact on earnings and economic value:

A. Nomination management

B. Credit information management

C. ALM and interest-rate-risk analysis based on repricing/duration characteristics

D. Locker management

E. Cheque-clearing management

Q19. A branch manager repeatedly bypasses maker-checker controls to complete transactions faster. No material financial loss has yet occurred. What does this situation most appropriately indicate:

A. Improved operational efficiency

B. A liquidity-management strategy

C. A credit-risk mitigation measure

D. A potential operational-risk and internal-control weakness requiring corrective action

E. A normal exception that requires attention only after financial loss

Q20. A digital payment fails, the customer's account is debited, and the applicable prescribed reversal period has not yet expired. What should the bank's customer-protection process primarily ensure:

A. The customer immediately makes a second payment

B. The complaint is closed because the transaction status is "failed"

C. The customer contacts the beneficiary personally

D. The bank waits until a legal notice is received

E. The transaction is tracked and resolved/reversed within the applicable framework and prescribed timeline

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🗝️ ANSWER KEY

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Q1.C

Q2.A

Q3.E

Q4.B

Q5.D

Q6.A

Q7.C

Q8.E

Q9.B

Q10.D

Q11.B

Q12.A

Q13.D

Q14.C

Q15.B

Q16.D

Q17.A

Q18.C

Q19.D

Q20.E

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🏆 IBR 5-MINUTE POST-MOCK ANALYSIS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

After completing the mock, record:

📌 SCORE: ____ / 20

📌 WRONG: ____

📌 UNATTEMPTED: ____

📌 CONCEPTUAL ERRORS: ____

📌 CARELESS ERRORS: ____

📌 TWO-OPTION CONFUSIONS: ____

Then identify your TOP 2 WEAK AREAS and revise them immediately.

🎯 YOUR REAL PERFORMANCE =

KNOWLEDGE + ACCURACY + DECISION-MAKING + TIME MANAGEMENT

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 SCORE GUIDE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 18–20 → EXCELLENT COMMAND

🟢 16–17 → STRONG PERFORMANCE

🟡 13–15 → GOOD — REVISE WEAK AREAS

🟠 10–12 → CONCEPT REVISION REQUIRED

🔴 BELOW 10 → STRENGTHEN CORE CONCEPTS

🎯 IBR PRACTICE TARGET: 18+

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🚀 JOIN THE IBR INTELLIGENCE ECOSYSTEM

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🌐 INDIAN BANKING RADAR

📚 Daily Banking & Economy News

🧠 IBPS PO • AFO • RRB Exam Intelligence

📊 Current Affairs • Quizzes • Knowledge Hub

🎯 Banking Concepts • Exam-Focused Revision

▶️ IBR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

🎥 30–60 Second Banking Intelligence

📊 RBI • Banking • Financial Awareness

⚡ Quick Concept Revision

🔥 Learn one important banking concept every day

💎 IBR PREMIUM

📘 Advanced PO & AFO Mains Mocks

📑 RBI Guideline Briefs

🧠 Banking Intelligence

📊 Current Affairs Analysis

🎯 Exam-Focused Practice

🔥 90-DAY PREMIUM ACCESS

READ • PRACTISE • ANALYSE • REVISE • IMPROVE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📢 FOLLOW IBR • PRACTISE DAILY • SHARE WITH YOUR BANKING & EXAM PREPARATION COMMUNITY

🎯 READ SMART • THINK BANKING • ANSWER INTELLIGENTLY

— INDIAN BANKING RADAR (IBR)