Career Opportunities for Freshers in Banking
India has a diversified Banking and financial services sector that is undergoing huge expansion, both in terms of offering a variety of services & branches.
The Reserve bank has allowed new entities such as payment banks to be created recently, thereby adding to the type of entities operating in the sector. The regulator also came out with various measures to stimulate the growth of the banking sector like digital banking and virtual currency etc.
Banking Industry
The Indian banking Industry consists of 12 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks, 46 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1531 urban cooperative banks, and 96,000 rural cooperative credit institutions and societies as of Dec 31st, 2021.
As of the year ending 2021, the total number of ATMs in India reached 213,145.
Job Opportunities:
With the kind of market size and potential to grow, there are huge opportunities for freshers in various Public sector and private sector Banks.
Public sector banks except SBI recruit freshers through IBPS (Institute of banking and personal selection) it is an authorized body set up to hire freshers for various roles mentioned below.
- Clerk
- Officer
- Specialized officer – Specifically recruit IT engineers, Lawyers, Agri students, Charted Accountants.
SBI recruits separately for the above roles and Public sector banks inclusive of SBI recruit 20000 freshers in a year.
Apart from this, RBI recruits freshers for clerical through RBI Assistant and Grade officers’ route.
In terms of private sector banks, they recruit freshers for various roles like Teller, customer relationship officer, Wealth manager, business development manager, etc.
What freshers have to do to grab these opportunities
As they just came out of college, advisable to enhance their knowledge in terms of Quantitative aptitude as well as logical thinking to crack the Banking competitive exam. In addition to that, if they can qualify NISM certifications like NISM 5A (Mutual Funds) and NISM X (investment advisor) which will boost the value of their resumes.
The average package for Freshers:
Public sector banks pay anywhere between 6 to 8 lakhs CTC for officers and private sector banks pay 3 to 4 lakhs for freshers. Over and above the bank employees also enjoy the benefit of a concessional interest rate for a home loan, LTC, and medical benefits.
It is a promising and recession-proof sector for anyone to look for long-term career prospects.
Authors’ View: More than the monetary benefit, the sector is a fast-growing sector and it gives an exhaustive opportunity for the freshers to explore and learn various areas of management.
Written by V. Hariharan, Finance professional and research scholar in Finance.