Ministry of finance released new Guidelines for the banking exams (SBI, IBPS, IBPS RRB)

In a recent update, the Department of Financial Services, under M/o of Finance, has released a notice through the Press Information Bureau (PIB) regarding the latest developments in upcoming Bank exams. From Financial Year 2026-2027 onwards, candidates can check their response sheet and answer keys on the BPS portal after the exam is conducted. The 2nd most important update of this press release is that from now, the chronological order of National Banks, RRBs, and SBI has been changed to avoid ‘industry attrition’ and bring stability in the recruitment process.

Department of Financial Services Change Bank Recruitment Cycle

These new rules, mentioned above, aim to make IBPS exams faster, more predictable, and more transparent for candidates. The changes will apply to recruitment for SBI, Nationalised Banks, and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). Earlier, the recruitment results were declared in this order:

RRBs → Nationalised Banks → SBI

Because of this pattern, many candidates joined RRBs first, then left to join Nationalised Banks or SBI when their results came out. This constant shifting created high attrition, making it difficult for banks to maintain the newly recruited staff.  Hence, DFS decided to review and organise the timeline in a more systematic way. Check the PIB notice here.

IBPS to Release Response Sheets and Answer Keys Separately for More Transparency

To make the recruitment process fairer and easier to understand, IBPS will release the answer key and response sheet from the 2026–27 cycle. These will help candidates check their performance and understand the evaluation process.

Access to Response Sheet

Candidates will be able to log in and view their response sheet. This helps candidates review their mistakes and understand their performance better.

Access to Answer Key

Candidates will also get access to the official answer key, which contains the correct answers to all questions asked. With this, candidates can calculate their expected score and check the accuracy of the exam process.

Together, the response sheet and answer key will make IBPS exams more transparent, reliable, and student-friendly.

How this New Announcement Helps Banks?

Once operational, this step will help recruiting banks in many ways, some of them are:

1. Attrition will be reduced
2. Banks can plan their workforce more effectively
3. Recruitment of new officers will become more stable
4. Overall, this will strengthen the entire banking system.