Welcome to the Final Part of The RBI Grade B Interview Transcripts series. If you missed the detailed review of my own RBI Grade B Interview you can click here to check it out. In this series of 75 other interviews I have already published Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 for a total of 60 Interviews. In Part 5 you will read the final 15 RBI Grade B interviews. In this part make sure to pay attention to candidate #62- she had to answer deep, opinion based conceptual questions. You cannot find those answers even from Google! Regardless of your background you need to focus on these deep questions as they can arrive out of the blue. Candidate #66 had the most harrowing experience among all of the 75 people and I agree wholeheartedly with whatever he says about the competition! Even though I did not get into RBI I feel honoured to have been a part of the competition. Not all of us will work in RBI but each one of us who went through this process was enriched. Enjoy Part 5 with candidates 61 through 75.

Profile: BE, 3 years experience at Aricent Technologies, 2 years at Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

Interview Date: 17th January, 2019. Location: Delhi

Total time: 17 minutes

Chairman:
When did you graduate?
What did you do after that?
You handle the work of Indian Institute of Mass Communication at M/o I&B?
Have you seen their annual report?
What about their balance sheet?
How does it earn its revenue?
Is it preferable for educational institutions to earn their own revenue?
Why should not they rely on govt. for revenue support?
Difference b/w the health of public and private sector banks? Give me some figures?

M1:
Do private sector banks underreport their NPAs?
How to check it?
What happened with ICICI, Axis and YES bank?
LIC bought which bank?
But why did LIC buy it?
What happened with IDBI bank?
Your favourite football team!
What’s wrong with Manchester United?
Why has England national team not been doing well in the past?
About state of Indian football?

L1:
About ease of doing business?
Parameters?
What else can be done?

M2:
How would you compare two banks?
From the point of view of investor?
All the monetary policy tools?
Should India remain a welfare state? Why?

Profile: Education in Botany, Applied Psychology, Work experience: 6 yrs India Post, 1 yr RBI Asst

Chairman:
Are you exposed to behavioural economics?
As per IMF chief’s statement at Davos, what is growth rate of Indian economy for the next year? Next to next year?
IMF chief said Agrarian problem and unemployment are areas of concern for Indian economy. Pick a topic among those 2 and speak for 3 minutes.

M1:
One psychologist has given one tool for interpersonal communication. What is it?
Myers-Briggs type indicator was given by?
Hawthorn studies?
Qualities of a good leader?

L1:
In which department do you work? (CFMC, Bangalore) [Central Fraud Monitoring Cell]
What is the work in your department?
I’ve received complaints from SSMs that there are delays in getting reports from your dept. Why the delays? (Honestly, I’m not aware about any delays or any reports being given to SSMs-Senior Supervisory Managers)
More queries.

M2:
Banks don’t need to report frauds till they discover frauds. So, it is not correct to say that banks are reporting frauds that happened in 2012 now. (I had mentioned that in my answer to L1)
What is the necessity for LCR?
Why LCR should be maintained in addition to SLR?
We might be eventually migrating to LCR. But in the meantime, is it not counterproductive that banks need to maintain both?
Banks already have CRAR and SLR. Why ask them to maintain LCR also?

M3:
Why CRR and SLR are maintained? (🙈 with a very sarcastic smile)
Don’t tell me that banks are mandated to maintain CRR as per RBI act. Why???
Why SLR?? (He just would not let me go on this.. 😢)
You are appearing for the second time. Last time I asked you about India Post. I won’t ask about that again. What topics are you comfortable with? What have you prepared for the interview?
Have you read the Master Direction on frauds?
Within how many days banks should report?
Do NBFCs report?
Do Co-op banks report?
Frauds come under what category of risks?

Profile: B.Tech 2017, Work ex 1 year BPCL, Currently not working

Went for about 20 minutes.

Chairman sir:
Graduation? Olympiads? Achievements?
Where did I work? How was the experience?
World Risk Report- crude prices for next year
Explain your ex company’s Balance Sheet
Other minor profile based questions

M1 sir:
Why did you leave BPCL
MPC framework- 3 things that come out after 2 weeks (Resolution, statements of each Member, vote of each member published on the website)

F1 ma’am:
CRAR and other norms? Basel?
1 economy based question she asked which I’m forgetting

M2 sir:
Operational costs on BS or PL statement
Economic capital & Regulatory capital? Who monitors both?

M3 sir:
Why didn’t the government reduce the oil prices in 2014?
How much oil do we import? As percentage of GDP
Effect of crude price reduction on fiscal deficit and CAD

Very cordial panel. All smiles( including chairman sir😅). Interestingly, I had given SBI interview just for experience this year and the chairman of that panel was M3 sir today 😅.

Profile: B.Tech Mechanical

Chairman
1. What have you been doing since 2013
2. What’s your academic qualification
3. Any degree which you did after 2013
4. What have you done then
5. Worked anywhere
6. Why did you leave SBI

M2
1. Why RBI after mechanical
2. How you prepared for RBI
3. As you prepared everything, tell me recent things about payment and settlement
4 . Not UPI more updated as you said you have been reading newspapers everyday
5. Told about recent RBI circular related to it
6. Tell me the reasons for it
7. Why multiple payments systems are needed
8. RBI vision and mission
9. Tell me about unemployment in India

Lady
1. Liked your frankness about everything, Tell me how would you improve jobs
2. RBI functions
3. Agrarian crisis
4. Follow up questions on it- Observed any changes in exam pattern? What’s your view ?
I told subjective is better and explained why it is better She replied “true”

M1
1. More about agrarian crisis and unemployment ( I prepared these topics specially as I wanted to mention it and make me drive the interview )
2. Indian economy related
3. Consumption driven
4. Formula
5. Ways to increase exports or jobs

M3
1. Chess elo rating
2. Grandmaster related
3. How will you pursue chess career in RBI as you mentioned
4. No of grandmasters
5. Why huge FII outflows
6. How can you increase FDI more as China did?
7. FDI reforms

Answered most of the questions confidently. Except for few questions such as why China attracted more and what were the incentives given. But for very few times I told I don’t know answer. And except for chairman everyone was smiling and interactive as each of them interrupted other panel members to ask follow up questions. I could generate their interest in me except for chairman. He was busy with mobile and after that he was observing my antics carefully & expressionlessly. Personally I felt they were mostly impressed by me. Ma’am clearly told she was very impressed by my frankness and she responded positively for most of the answers. But anything can happen in the end. I should be ready to see either 20 or 35+ but very few chances for lower marks

Profile: BTech ECE, 4 years in TCS and 4 in IOB currently working

PSL
eGovernance RBI circular
Recent developments in PSS
RBI preamble
Concentration risk
Group and single borrower risk
Why RBI
Why all people after doing Engineering want to join RBI (sarcastically).
If we place in Issue or currency department what will you do?
Shadow banking/NBFCs
Why PSBs are in very bad situation, compare it with private
What can you give to RBI?
How do you know so many languages
REITs
Follow up questions too
Davos and some report they have released also asked about it

Profile: Chemical Engg, UPSC Aspirant

My Interview was not good at all. Had gone with a mindset that it will be an economic affairs discussion with RBI current affairs but alas it was related to Finance mostly and RBI and Banking Acts, RBI website etc. It was bang average had to excuse myself a lot. Nothing from UPSC background or Chem engineering etc. They drove the interview and I sheepishly followed them wondering when the torture will get over. All things said, a very good candidate should be able to answer anything even if you least expect it- afterall it is a Central Bank so RBI, Finance etc. Somewhat basic knowledge about all these is necessary and warranted-and I am not there yet- not this year atleast. Thanks to all my friends here who have been very helpful and considerate. I guess I will forget this episode for now and come back stronger next time with some some solid background in financial matters.

Sorry I have nothing to post as I went blank after the interview and I don’t remember anything which can help out people. Only thing I observed was RBI functions book is a compulsory now and also the website especially the speeches-just prepare 5-6 bullet points and also remember the last line i.e. conclusions in a crystal clear way. If it’s your lucky day you can enjoy a fruitful discussion on indian economic challenges-solutions and hobby and domain knowledge ,even Sabarimala etc. and thus completely avoid my harrowing experience. Lastly thanks once again to the peer group- have never seen such a wide array of intelligent candidates under one roof -so all the very best-proud to have been a part of the competition with you. Bye and Take care everyone. 😁👍🙌😇🖐✌️.

PS: And lastly about result they just reiterated that the result is subject to court case blah blah and did not give any substantive answer to me.

Profile: Unknown

Questions asked :
1. Which department would you want to work in RBI and why?
2. Why do we need Basel norms. Are they sufficient?
3. Are digital payments secure? What steps can be taken and have been taken by RBI recently.
4. How is Gujarat different from Delhi.
5. What is CBLO. Who runs it. Why CBLO if corporates can issue CP.
6. RBI speeches summary.
7. Does RBI need more autonomy?
8. Why China economy is slowing down. Why is India not getting affected by it.
9. During East Asian crisis why China did not feel the heat as Thailand when they were an open economy way before India.

Various follow up questions within these questions. Most of the questions seem easy but they were not giving enough time to even finish any sentence. They just shoot another in between. Chairman was busy as usual with his phone. South Indian guy was asking deep follow up questions. Overall – not so good. Was not able to answer many follow up questions.

Profile: B.Tech 2016 passout, Data Analyst at Tesco

Interview Date: 25th Jan 2019, Location: Chennai

Chairman:
Tell me your qualifications
Qs on Tesco and why do you want to switch from Tesco to RBI?
How can big data be used in RBI? I talked about the speech by Roberto Rigobon at Tendulkar memorial speech

M1:
How did you find the RBI website?
What did you like most about it?
I said speeches and mint street memos and when he asked Dept, I said financial inclusion and development
Since you like speeches tell me about the 3 challenges governor mentioned in his Gujarat speech? Inflation, financial sector and external sector and asked me to explain his views on each of them
Regarding Corp governance, asked me if I knew about the biggest corp governance issue in automobile sector? Didn’t know 
He said it was Nissan and told me the name of CEO as well. Told him I wasn’t aware of the issue. He moved on and asked about central board of RBI which I didn’t know that much about and he asked specifically about a pharma representative whose company was in the news. No idea about that either. But he was trying to unnerve me sort of and was okay with me not answering specifics of it.
[Supriyo: In case of an automotive corp gov failure I would have gone with the Volkswagon fiasco but M1 was referring to the Carlos Ghosn case which was a bit under the radar of most newspapers at the time- this is why every financial fiasco must be covered for the RBI interview, not only the main ones!]

M2:
About Tesco’s ventures in India
New rules on e-commerce in India, data localisation

L1:
How did you prepare for the exams?
How did you prepare for the economics bits?

M3:
About corp governance, Uday Kotak issue and I talked of issuing of preferential shares and them not having voting rights. He said that it was a good point. And passed comments on the irony of Uday Kotak being the chairman of Corporate Governance panel.
Asked about the recent news on DCB on serious fraud allegations which I had no clue on.
Then asked about Chanda Kochar issue and we discussed about the conflict of interest.
Then Chairman told me to leave.

I felt really good about the interview as they were jovial and cordial. I was stressed going into it but had fun inside. And I think if you are being specific about your answers they do tend to notice it. And they do encourage guessing if it is an opinion heavy question

Profile: BTech (Mechanical, Kerala Univ) MBA (IIT Kanpur) 2 years of work ex with an NGO and starting a company and now UPSC prep

Interview Date: 25 Jan 2019 (Duration: ~25mins)

CM – Certain abbreviations I had used in the bio form. He told me I’ll be in a cage joining RBI from a start up and NGO b/g., temperament needed for someone joining RBI etc.

Member 1 – Prev attempts, RBI website, what does RBI do? (I said RBI policies have the limitation that it’s one policy for all sectors, but it was a mistake- he became defensive and replied that RBI always takes public comments “if you have ever seen a RBI circular”, asked 3 definitive things mentioned in MPC report etc)

Member 2 – Did you read today’s paper? Went on to discuss Chanda Kochar, corporate governance, are NPAs result of poor corporate guv etc

Member 3 – Most recent growth estimate (got that wrong), how can the fiscal policy increase pvt investment, what are complementary and compensatory measures the govt can take

Member 4 – What did you learn in MBA Finance (said commercial banking and other subjects) asked what a Commercial Bank is, what an Investment Bank is etc.

Profile: B.Tech, MBA, 5 year experience

Interview Date: 29 January 2019, 8th to go. Time: 20 minutes

Discussion on Indian economy
Tax to GDP ratio why low what govt is doing what more can be done
Social security net
NBFC liquidity crisis
Should there be LAF for NBFCs
Recent cancellation of NBFC licences by RBI? Why?

No factual questions it was totally an opinion based interview.

Profile: TCS 1.5 years, PSB IT Officer for 5.5 years

CRAR
PCR
Why Basel Pillar 2? Its importance
What parameters to judge a bank?
Diff b/w private companies and public sector banks
What quality you bring to RBI if we select you
Education
Questions related to IT, Cyber security, CISO roles and its importance

This was my 6th RBI attempt & first time in Interview 😂 (3 before pattern change 3 after)

Profile: 2011 B.Tech ; 2013 MBA ; 2 years at Infosys, 2 years at my Startup, now 1.5 years in Customs

About 20-25 minutes interview

Chairman:
1. Using your entrepreneurial experience tell us some recent initiatives that govt/regulatory bodies have taken for helping businesses and start ups and what else can be done?
(He might have articulated it differently. Asked me to answer it in 3 mins)
2. Why RBI? Why leave your business?

Others:
PCR and how (or if) it will help first time credit takers?
Independence of RBI
Tussle between RBI and government
Central ministers giving statements supporting industry – why so? Is that right?
Fiscal deficit definition? How govt funds the deficit, multiple ways of funding (dated securities and treasury bills differences & why used)
Gold Monetization Scheme and gold bond scheme, their intentions, success and the reasons for that, reasons why gold imports fell recently
RBI site, is it easy to read?
Mint Street Memos or speeches?
How I prepared.

Overall: both profile and macro economic based interview. Board was cordial but one guy was grilling a bit asking many supplementary questions. I was a bit tensed. And didn’t answer a good deal of questions. So, don’t think I did a good job.

Profile: B.Com + 3 years in PSB

Interview Date: 30.01.2019, Location: Mumbai

Chairman :
Your educational qualification and percentage in that?
Done from?
What was the score of topper?
Have you thought of RBI that time?
Why not?

L1 :
Steps taken by your bank after PNB scam?
Follow up questions related to this and audit.

L2 :
What are the risks in banking?
Tell me one important risk and why?
Why should we take you in RBI?
How do you give loans, steps you take in the process?
Follow up questions on CIBIL and PCR?

M1 :
Difference between CIBIL and PCR?
Who all can view or add data in this?
Yield on advance, cost of funds and data related to these in your bank?
Should Business performance of employees working in a branch be measured based on average or terminal?
Should it not be on average?
Is window dressing done by banks in last few days of FY?

M2 :
What is NII & NIM and difference between them?
NII and NIM of your bank?
What is TPM?
How can you decide profitability of a branch?
Operating profit, provisions and net profit of your bank?

Overall : Profile based Qs. Board was very cordial and correcting me sometimes when I couldn’t answer.

Profile: CA, 2 years workex in EY in Corporate and International tax, now OICL AO

As soon as I entered Chairman asked qualification, which year passed out etc. Then he said I’ll just ask you one question which will test your knowledge and clarity- Talk on transfer pricing for 3 min. I spoke.

Role of auditors in scams, ethical or not, what can be done?
SEBI ILFS issue
SEBI has said no to which company following ILFS crisis
Monetary Policy – direct and indirect methods
Why direct and indirect
Difference MSF and MSS
What was used when
Difference fixed and market repo rate
GST good or bad?
RBI functions
OICL accounts what do you do?

Could answer most but couldn’t answer few. Was ok.

Profile: Unknown

Talk on Micro finance institutions for 3 min
Ratios in Banking
Investment Leverage and Financial Leverage difference
Market capitalization
Enterprise value
Analyze last monetary policy report
Sovereign Wealth Fund
MSS – what happens to rupee and money supply?
Why dollar is Reserve Currency – I told widely traded, confidence (but he wanted specific answer that people have more faith in the US than any other economy)

THE END

This concludes the final set of 15 interviews in this series of 75 RBI Grade B Interviews. All of the interviews are from 2018 but the common denominator in all of these is that the same Panel conducted every interview (with very minor changes to the Panel across cities) and this is the same Panel that will conduct it for the 2019 & 2020 batch. I have tried to annotate details wherever it was needed with the goal of helping you learn more. A lot of you reached out to me requesting further assistance so I have a few plans to help you out. Wishing all of you reading this a wonderful New Year 2020 & a fruitful and successful decade ahead. May the Force be with you. 

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