English Questions for LIC AAO Exam 2019

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.

Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.

Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.

Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.

Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.

Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.

Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.
Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.
Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.
Source: Economic Times

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.
Source: Economic Times

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E) i.e. No correction required.

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the sentence. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E), i.e., 'No correction required'.

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E), i.e., 'No correction required'.

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence, three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the sentence. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E), i.e., 'No correction required'.

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the sentence. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E), i.e., 'No correction required'.

Direction: In the given question, a part of the sentence is printed in bold. Below the sentence three alternatives to the bold part are given which may help improve the sentence. Choose the option that reflects the correct use of the phrase in the context of the sentence. In case the given sentence is correct, your answer is (E) i.e. No correction required.

Direction: The following question carries a statement with a blank. The statement is followed by three phrases, more than one of which may fit in the blank. Choose the phrase(s) that can be placed in the blank to make the sentence grammatically correct and meaningful.

Direction: A statement with one blank is given below. Choose the set of words from the given options which can be used to fill the given blank.

Direction: A statement carrying one blank is given below. Choose the phrase(s) which can fill the blank to make the sentence grammatically correct and meaningful.

Direction: A statement with one blank is given below. Choose the set of words from the given options which can be used to fill in the given blank.

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these.
Barely would one come across staff in the State Bank of India walking up to a customer to sell a product that one had not asked for. But that is set to change. Cross-selling has been a mantra on which many of the global lenders – from Citibank to the locally groomed HDFC Bank – rest their success on. For Indian state-run banks built on orders from their political master, that’s hardly strength. While SBI followed a model of others such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank when it came to the idea of a financial supermarket, its large lending operations and other activities such as earning fee income from advisory remained in silos that reduced its ability to exploit the customers. Growth has all along been about increasing the asset size by cutting cheques for thousands of crores in project finance, but not looking at customers’ needs for other services such as digital only and complex financial products.
As the 25th chairman of SBI, Rajnish Kumar is determined to change course. In what is a total revamp of the organisational structure for the first time in 18 years, the lender will see its corporate lending groups amalgamated with the idea of extracting higher share of the customers’ wallet – from selling derivatives, encircling their suppliers for more business and make a business out of bad loans that it has accumulated. “The aim is to improve fee income as the corporate accounts group will also focus on project finance and credit accounts have huge supply chains around them,” says Kumar.
The mighty corporate accounts group will focus on large corporates with the best credentials, but would not restrict its activity to lending, but would exploit the potential to bring in other banking business. These companies such as Tata Motors have thousands of suppliers around them that is a great catchment area. Although SBI is the biggest with 23% market share of assets, it has also one-fourth of the total deposits and loan market. For the nine month period in the last fiscal, its income from fees grew 9% and cross-selling income grew by 85%. At the end of the December quarter, the bank’s fee income comprised only 8% of its total income, this compares to 30% for Axis Bank.
Increasing fee income may be a good strategy, but hard to execute as it comes with many challenges. “There is a huge potential to grow fee income just looking at the sheer size,” says Darpin Shah, banking analyst, HDFC Securities. “I did a road-trip in UP. It was surprising that SBI is the only PSU bank putting up a tough challenge to NBFCs and other banks in that region, in some places it was even No 1 and this is getting them good fee growth.”
The very strengths that an institution counts upon to build its future could by itself become a drag. The staff strength of 2.6 lakh, including the over 73,000 that it got after the merger of associate banks last year, was becoming as much a problem as it opened up opportunities. After a year when staff from amalgamated banks’ lost out on promotions, the bank has come up with its own ‘succession planning’ up to the deputy managing director level within its ambit. For each DMD role, the bank will shortlist four chief general managers and, for every CGM position, there will be nearly 4 GMs who will prepare to take over senior management mantle.
Source: Economic Times