promotion Policy for Specialist Officers in PSU Banks

Career in banking sector has always been considered as one of the most lucrative and stable choices by Indian youth. The recent push by the central government to increase banking functionality and network through schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojan, Financial Inclusion etc. has further shifted the focus upon this sector. With increasing competition from the private sector, Public Sector Banks like SBI, Bank of Baroda etc. have also started diversifying their operations and adopted the concept of Universal banking to cover different banking function. Public Sector Banks have also started hiring specialist officers to handle these specialBank Jobs that require specific skill set and focus. In general, Indian Public Sector Banks recruit specialist officers in following fields:

• Financial Analyst (Including CAs)
• Company Secretary
• Forex
• Economist
• Law
• Architects / Civil Engineer
• HR/Personnel
• Marketing / Sales
• Security
• Risk Management
• Information Technology (IT)
• Dealer (Integrated Treasury)
• Rajbhasha Adhikari

Public Sector Banks conduct separate specialist officer exams to recruit officers for the aforementioned roles. Despite being one of the most well known career choices, not much is known about the Specialist Officers in Public Sector Banks. The main reason behind it is that the job responsibilities differ and IBPS Specialist Officer exams are conducted separately than Bank PO and Clerk Exams. One of the common queries received with respect to Bank specialist officers, has been the career prospects and promotion policy. Below, we shall discuss these aspects:

Promotion Policy for Bank Officers:

In general the Public Sector Banks follow a two channel promotion policy for their officers i.e. through seniority and merit. Promotions are granted on basis of Scales as given in the table below:

Scale	Promotion Channel	Minimum Experience	Maximum Relaxation in terms of Years	Minimum Length of Service
JMG Scale – I to MMG Scale -II	Normal / Seniority	5	1	NA
JMG Scale – I to MMG Scale -II	Merit/Fast Track	3	1	NA
MMG Scale – II to MMG Scale – III	Normal / Seniority	5	1	NA
MMG Scale – II to MMG Scale – III	Merit/Fast Track	3	1	NA
MMG Scale – III to SMG – IV	Merit / Fast Track	3	1	NA
SMG Scale – IV to SMG – V	Merit / Fast Track	3	1	12
Scale - V to Scale - VI	Merit / Fast Track	3	1	15
Scale - VI to Scale – VII	Merit / Fast Track	3	1	18

Promotion Policy for Specialist Bank Officers:

The Promotion Policy for Specialist Officers in Public Sector Banks is designed on the same lines as that of Generalist Officers. However,  the below mentioned special eligibility criteria needs to be fulfilled by the respective officer to be eligible for promotion as a Specialist Officer.

• Specialist Officers in PSU Banks need to complete atleast 5 years of minimum mandatory service in the specialised cadre to be eligible to join main stream cadre
• After joining the mainstream cadre, they need to gain two years of experience in field operations to be eligible for promotion
• Specialist Bank Officers are exempted for minimum mandatory service of 2 years in rural areas
• Once they complete the aforementioned conditions, specialist officers are allowed to join the main stream cadre and are eligible for promotions per the eligibility and experience mentioned in the table above.

If any specialist officer joins Public Sector Bank on a scale higher than JMG Scale I, the minimum eligibility of service requirement would apply as per the table above. For example, if an officer enters at Scale II, the minimum length of service for promotion from Scale IV to Scale V will be 9 years instead of 12 years.

Click here for How to Crack Bank PO Exam in first attempt ?