Nainital Bank Clerk key terms

The interest rate at which the Reserve Bank of India lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities. Raising it makes borrowing costlier and helps control inflation.

The rate at which the RBI absorbs surplus liquidity from banks by borrowing their funds. It usually sits below the repo rate and is a tool for draining excess money from the system.

Cash Reserve Ratio: the share of a bank's net demand and time liabilities that must be kept as cash with the RBI. It earns no interest and directly reduces funds available for lending.

Statutory Liquidity Ratio: the minimum portion of net demand and time liabilities a bank must hold in safe assets such as government securities, cash or gold, in addition to its CRR balance.

The rate at which the RBI provides long-term funds to banks without collateral, often used as a penal rate. It is one of the policy rates announced in the monetary policy statement.

Marginal Standing Facility: a window allowing banks to borrow overnight from the RBI against approved government securities, up to a limit of their net demand and time liabilities, at a penal rate.

The RBI's framework of repo and reverse repo operations through which banks borrow or park short-term funds, keeping the call money rate within the corridor set by policy rates.

The market where banks lend and borrow very short-term funds, usually overnight, to meet reserve requirements. Rates here move within the RBI's liquidity corridor.

The RBI's management of money supply and interest rates to achieve price stability while supporting growth. Its main instruments include policy rates, reserve ratios and open market operations.

Monetary Policy Committee: the six-member body chaired by the RBI Governor that sets the policy repo rate, with a mandate to keep consumer price inflation near four percent.

Buying or selling of government securities by the RBI in the market to inject or absorb durable liquidity. Purchases add money to the banking system; sales withdraw it.

The base used to compute reserve requirements, calculated as total demand and time liabilities minus interbank liabilities and assets with the banking system. CRR and SLR are applied to it.

A loan on which interest or principal has remained overdue for more than 90 days. Such assets stop earning income for the bank and require provisioning against likely losses.

A non-performing asset that has remained overdue for 12 months or less. It is riskier than a standard asset but precedes the doubtful and loss categories in asset classification.

Money a bank sets aside from profits to cover expected losses on bad loans. Provisioning norms depend on the asset classification, with higher requirements for riskier categories.

A law empowering banks and financial institutions to seize and sell mortgaged assets of defaulting borrowers without court intervention, after giving the required notice period.

The process of pooling illiquid loans into marketable securities sold to investors. It helps banks free up capital and transfer credit risk off their balance sheets.

The minimum lending rate below which a bank cannot lend to most borrowers. It is calculated from cost of funds, operating expenses, a profit margin and the cost of maintaining CRR.

Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate: the internal benchmark that replaced the base rate for pricing floating-rate loans, linked to the bank's marginal cost of borrowing.

Know Your Customer: mandatory identity and address verification of customers before opening accounts or allowing transactions, aimed at preventing money laundering and fraud.

Anti-Money Laundering: the set of laws, procedures and monitoring systems banks use to detect and report attempts to disguise the origin of illegal funds through the financial system.

Prevention of Money Laundering Act: Indian law that criminalises money laundering and imposes reporting, record-keeping and customer due diligence duties on banks and other reporting entities.

National Electronic Funds Transfer: a retail payment system operated by the RBI in which transactions are settled in batches. It works round the clock and supports one-rupee minimum transfers.

Real Time Gross Settlement: a system for high-value interbank transfers settled individually and instantly. The current minimum transfer amount is two lakh rupees, with no upper limit.

Immediate Payment Service: a 24x7 instant interbank transfer system run by NPCI, usable through mobile banking, net banking and UPI, with per-transaction limits set by banks.

Unified Payments Interface: a real-time payment system by NPCI that links multiple bank accounts to one virtual address, enabling instant transfers and merchant payments through mobile apps.

National Payments Corporation of India: the umbrella organisation that operates retail payment systems including UPI, IMPS, RuPay, NACH and AePS under RBI guidance.

India's domestic card payment network launched by NPCI, issuing debit, credit and prepaid cards that are accepted across ATMs, POS terminals and online merchants in the country.

The RBI mandate requiring banks to direct a minimum share of credit, currently 40 percent of adjusted net bank credit, to agriculture, MSMEs, education, housing and weaker sections.

Ensuring affordable access to banking, credit, insurance and pension services for all sections of society, pursued in India through Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar linkage and mobile banking.

A comparison of two quantities by division and an equation stating that two ratios are equal. Problems typically ask you to divide a total in a given ratio or find an unknown share.

A fraction expressed out of one hundred, used to compare quantities and measure change. Converting between fractions, decimals and percentages is a core speed skill in aptitude tests.

The sum of a set of values divided by the number of values. In exams it often appears with questions about changes in average when a member is added, removed or replaced.

Interest calculated only on the original principal for the whole period, using the formula principal times rate times time divided by one hundred. It does not compound.

Interest calculated on both the principal and previously accumulated interest, so the amount grows faster than under simple interest. Compounding may be yearly, half-yearly or quarterly.

The relationship that distance equals speed multiplied by time. Exam questions extend it to relative speed, trains crossing objects, boats in streams and average speed over unequal legs.

Counting techniques for arrangements where order matters and selections where it does not. They underpin questions on seating, committees and probability in the reasoning and aptitude sections.

The measure of how likely an event is, computed as favourable outcomes divided by total equally likely outcomes. Values always lie between zero and one inclusive.

A reasoning question type presenting two or more statements treated as true, from which you must judge which conclusions necessarily follow, using set relationships rather than real-world knowledge.

A diagram using overlapping circles to show relationships between sets. It is the standard tool for solving syllogisms and classification questions quickly and accurately.

A reasoning question where a short statement is followed by implied assumptions, and you must identify which assumption is implicit in the speaker's argument rather than stated openly.

A question type giving a statement and possible conclusions, asking which conclusion logically follows from the given information without adding outside facts or personal opinion.

Puzzle questions describing family links through statements or coded symbols, requiring you to trace relationships and answer who is related to whom and how.

A set of clues about people arranged in rows, circles or floors that must be placed correctly. These questions test deduction and are usually solved by drawing a layout.

Questions where words or numbers are written in a coded pattern and you must either decode a given code or apply the same rule to encode a new word.

A sequence mixing letters, digits and symbols, with questions asking which element is nth to the left or right of another or how many meet a stated condition.

Problems tracking a person's movement through turns and distances, asking for final direction or shortest distance from the start, usually solved with a rough sketch.

A word whose meaning is opposite to another word. Antonym questions test vocabulary breadth, so candidates should learn words in pairs rather than in isolation.

A word with the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. Synonym questions reward knowledge of shades of meaning and the context in which a word is used.

One of two or more words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning, such as principal and principle. Confusing them is a common source of error in error-spotting questions.

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be understood from its individual words, such as to bite the bullet. Idiom questions ask for the correct meaning or usage in a sentence.

A verb combined with a preposition or adverb that creates a new meaning, such as put off or carry out. The particle often changes the sense entirely, so each must be learnt separately.

A passage with blanks that must be filled with suitable words, testing grammar, vocabulary and comprehension of the surrounding context rather than isolated word knowledge.

A section presenting a passage followed by questions on its main idea, details, tone and implied meaning. Answers must be supported by the text, not by personal opinion.

A conclusion drawn from evidence in the passage rather than stated directly. Inference questions require reading between the lines while staying strictly within what the text supports.

A question type where a sentence is divided into parts and you must identify the part containing a grammatical error, often involving subject-verb agreement, tense or preposition use.