INDIAN BANKING RADAR (IBR) - IBPS PO MAINS INTELLIGENCE MOCK

🔥 PLATINUM SERIES 2.0 | VOL. 170

📅 16 SEPTEMBER 2026 | WEDNESDAY

🎯 PRIMARY TARGET: IBPS PO MAINS

🎯 ALSO RELEVANT: SBI PO • RBI • NABARD

🧠 BANKING & ECONOMY INTELLIGENCE TEST

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 BEFORE YOU START

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⏱️ Suggested Time: 15–18 Minutes

📝 20 Questions | 20 Marks

🎯 FOCUS:

Banking • RBI • Monetary Policy • Liquidity

Digital Payments • Financial Markets • Economy

SEBI • Current Affairs • Banking Concepts

⚠️ IBR MAINS APPROACH

Don't choose an option simply because it contains the latest number.

First identify:

WHAT → WHY → IMPACT → EXAM TRAP

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SECTION A — 20-MCQ INTELLIGENCE TEST

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Q1. Under the new UPI framework announced in September 2026, which statement correctly describes the treatment of merchant transactions:

A. P2P transactions will attract MDR above ₹2,000

B. All P2M transactions above ₹2,000 will attract MDR

C. Specified P2M transactions above ₹2,000 may attract MDR, while about 96% of P2M transactions remain unaffected

D. MDR will be collected directly by the Government

E. All UPI transactions will attract a uniform MDR

Q2. Which statement regarding UPI peer-to-peer transactions is correct under the new framework:

A. P2P transactions remain free irrespective of the amount transferred

B. P2P transactions above ₹2,000 will attract 0.4% MDR

C. P2P transactions above ₹5,000 require merchant MDR

D. P2P transactions are free only up to ₹2,000

E. P2P transactions are free only for bank-account transfers

Q3. In the RBI's VRRR auction conducted on 15 September 2026, the amount absorbed from the banking system was approximately:

A. ₹2.59 lakh crore

B. ₹3.53 lakh crore

C. ₹3.93 lakh crore

D. ₹5.00 lakh crore

E. ₹7.00 lakh crore

Q4. RBI's recently announced OMO sales of Government securities total ₹1 lakh crore in three tranches. The first tranche of ₹50,000 crore is scheduled for:

A. 15 September 2026

B. 17 September 2026

C. 18 September 2026

D. 21 September 2026

E. 28 September 2026

Q5. The principal purpose of the recent RBI VRRR and OMO operations is to:

A. Inject permanent liquidity into banks

B. Increase CRR immediately

C. Finance the fiscal deficit directly

D. Absorb surplus liquidity from the banking system

E. Reduce banks' SLR requirements

Q6. India's foreign exchange reserves for the week ended 4 September 2026 were approximately:

A. US$785.7 billion

B. US$741.2 billion

C. US$762.4 billion

D. US$804.5 billion

E. US$720.8 billion

Q7. As of 31 August 2026, special forex mobilisation by banks and other eligible entities was approximately US$136.38 billion. The largest component was:

A. ECBs

B. OFCBs

C. FCNR(B) deposits

D. NRE deposits

E. FPI inflows

Q8. The RBI's draft KYC Amendment Directions, 2026 propose temporary debit restrictions on suspected money-mule accounts. The proposed maximum period of such a temporary debit hold is:

A. 15 days

B. 30 days

C. 45 days

D. 60 days

E. 90 days

Q9. RBI's National Summary Data for 31 August 2026 reported M3 growth at approximately:

A. 12.5%

B. 14.2%

C. 15.0%

D. 16.7%

E. 18.5%

Q10. UPI transactions reached approximately how many million transactions in August 2026:

A. 18,500 million

B. 20,750 million

C. 22,800 million

D. 23,900 million

E. 24,509 million

Q11. SEBI's September 2026 circular on ease of regulatory compliances for FPIs specifically addressed FPIs investing only in:

A. Corporate bonds

B. Government securities

C. Equity derivatives

D. Commodity derivatives

E. Municipal bonds

Q12. SEBI's 9 September 2026 circular relates to a review of position limits and penalty provisions in which segment:

A. Equity cash market

B. Mutual funds

C. Commodity derivatives

D. Government securities

E. Insurance-linked securities

Q13. Recent SEBI action concerning Angel Funds relates primarily to:

A. Relaxation in the timeline concerning the Accredited Investor mandate

B. Abolition of Angel Funds

C. Introduction of compulsory bank guarantees

D. Removal of all investment restrictions

E. Conversion of Angel Funds into mutual funds

Q14. Demat 2.0, launched by SEBI and RBI, initially involved tokenisation of corporate bonds using:

A. CBDC only

B. Blockchain-based cryptocurrency

C. DLT and wholesale e₹

D. Stablecoins and UPI Lite

E. RuPay and FASTag

Q15. RBI imposed a monetary penalty of ₹27.30 lakh on Asset Care & Reconstruction Enterprise Limited primarily for non-compliance relating to:

A. Priority sector lending targets

B. Income recognition directions concerning management fees

C. CRR maintenance

D. KYC periodic updation

E. Foreign exchange reporting

Q16. With the policy repo rate at 5.25%, the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rates are respectively:

A. 5.00% and 5.50%

B. 5.25% and 5.50%

C. 5.00% and 5.25%

D. 5.50% and 5.00%

E. 4.75% and 5.25%

Q17. When RBI conducts an OMO sale of Government securities, the immediate liquidity effect on the banking system is generally:

A. Liquidity increases because RBI purchases securities

B. Liquidity decreases because banks/investors pay RBI for the securities

C. CRR automatically falls

D. SLR automatically falls

E. Currency in circulation automatically doubles

Q18. If a bank receives ₹100 crore of additional lendable funds and the incremental credit multiplier is 5, the theoretical maximum expansion in deposits/credit under the simplified assumption is:

A. ₹100 crore

B. ₹300 crore

C. ₹400 crore

D. ₹500 crore

E. ₹600 crore

Q19. India's CPI inflation for August 2026 was reported at approximately:

A. 4.82%

B. 4.45%

C. 5.10%

D. 5.95%

E. 6.20%

Q20. India's WPI inflation for August 2026 was approximately:

A. 7.05%

B. 8.37%

C. 9.78%

D. 9.92%

E. 10.50%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🗝️ ANSWER KEY

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Q1.C

Q2.A

Q3.C

Q4.B

Q5.D

Q6.A

Q7.C

Q8.D

Q9.D

Q10.E

Q11.B

Q12.C

Q13.A

Q14.C

Q15.B

Q16.A

Q17.B

Q18.D

Q19.A

Q20.D

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧮 QUICK CALCULATIONS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Q18 — CREDIT MULTIPLIER

Additional funds = ₹100 crore

Multiplier = 5

Theoretical expansion:

₹100 crore × 5

= ₹500 crore

🎯 ANSWER: D

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧠 IBR MAINS INTELLIGENCE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔹 UPI MDR — EXAM TRAP

MDR ≠ Government tax.

MDR is distributed among participants in the payment ecosystem.

📌 P2P → remains free

📌 Small-merchant zero-MDR transactions → remain free

📌 Specified P2M transactions above ₹2,000 → MDR framework applies

📌 About 96% of P2M transactions remain unaffected

🎯 Remember:

MDR is not the same as a Government charge.

🔹 VRRR vs OMO

VRRR:

➡️ Short-term liquidity absorption

OMO sale:

➡️ Securities sold by RBI

➡️ Money flows from banking system to RBI

➡️ System liquidity decreases

🎯 TRAP:

OMO purchase → liquidity injection

OMO sale → liquidity absorption

🔹 FOREX MOBILISATION → LIQUIDITY LINK

Large foreign-currency mobilisation can contribute to rupee liquidity after RBI-related swap operations.

Therefore:

Forex mobilisation

↓

Rupee liquidity

↓

Surplus liquidity

↓

VRRR / OMO absorption

This is an important Banking + Economy linkage.

🔹 MONEY-MULE KYC PROPOSAL

The RBI draft proposes a temporary debit hold mechanism for accounts suspected to be linked with money-mule activity and cyber-enabled financial fraud.

🎯 Exam focus:

KYC → fraud prevention → temporary debit restriction → customer explanation → review

🔹 SEBI CURRENT-AFFAIRS CLUSTER

Remember the September sequence:

📌 Sep 7 → Angel Funds

📌 Sep 7 → FPIs investing only in Government Securities

📌 Sep 9 → Commodity Derivatives position limits

This type of date-based clustering is highly useful for PO Mains.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⚠️ EXAM TRAPS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

❌ OMO sale → liquidity injection

✅ OMO sale → liquidity absorption

❌ VRRR → permanent liquidity withdrawal

✅ VRRR → short-term liquidity absorption

❌ MDR → Government tax

✅ MDR → payment ecosystem charge

❌ P2P UPI above ₹2,000 → automatically charged

✅ P2P UPI → continues to remain free

❌ FCNR(B) was the smallest component of special forex mobilisation

✅ FCNR(B) was the largest component

❌ SEBI's Sep 9 circular → equity cash market

✅ Commodity derivatives

❌ Repo rate and SDF rate are identical

✅ Repo = 5.25%

SDF = 5.00%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 SCORE GUIDE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

18–20 → 🔥 ELITE MAINS ZONE

16–17 → 🟢 EXAM READY

13–15 → 🟡 GOOD — REVISE WEAK AREAS

10–12 → 🟠 NEEDS CONCEPT REVISION

<10 → 🔴 REBUILD CORE CONCEPTS

🎯 IBR TARGET: 18+

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎥 IBR YOUTUBE — YOUR DAILY EXAM EDGE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📺 INDIAN BANKING RADAR (IBR)

🌾 AFO • AGRICULTURE • NABARD

🏦 IBPS PO • SBI PO • RRB

🧠 Current Affairs • Mains MCQs

⚠️ Exam Traps • Concept Revision

🎯 Short Videos • Quick Revision

🔥 WHY SUBSCRIBE?

✅ Daily exam-relevant current affairs

✅ Banking & AFO concept revision

✅ Important MCQs explained

✅ Exam traps in simple language

✅ 30–60 second quick-revision videos

✅ Banking updates simplified for competitive exams

👉 SUBSCRIBE NOW

🔔 Turn on notifications so you don't miss new IBR videos.

👍 LIKE • 💬 COMMENT • ↗️ SHARE

🌐 Visit IBR for Premium Mocks & Learning

🔥 PREPARE TODAY. REVISE DAILY. PERFORM BETTER.

WATCH • LEARN • PRACTISE • REVISE • REPEAT

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💎 IBR PREMIUM EDGE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Want more than daily MCQs?

🔥 Premium Banking Preparation

📘 Mock Tests

📑 RBI Guidelines Briefs

🧠 Interview Topics

⚠️ Exam Traps

📚 Special Banking Concepts

👉 REGISTER FOR IBR PREMIUM

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔥 FINAL MANTRA

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Don't memorise today's news.

Convert every headline into:

FACT → CONCEPT → IMPACT → EXAM TRAP

🏦 That is the IBR Mains Intelligence approach.

🎯 READ SMART • THINK BANKING • ANSWER INTELLIGENTLY

— INDIAN BANKING RADAR (IBR).