IBPS Clerk 2026 — now the Customer Service Associate exam

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026. Naming and process verified against IBPS's current Common Recruitment Process notice.

IBPS — the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection — runs one common recruitment for clerical posts across the public sector banks. The designation on recent notices is Customer Service Associate, and the current recruitment is numbered CRP-CSA-XVI. Bank notice-boards and coaching circles still say “clerk”; the job and the exam are the same animal under the new name.

Two banks stay outside this process: SBI recruits its own clerks, and regional rural banks run a separate IBPS RRB process.

1. Prelims — English, numerical ability and reasoning; qualifying only. Your Prelims score does not follow you to the merit list.
2. Mains — general and financial awareness, general English, data analysis and interpretation, and computer aptitude with reasoning, per the current notification's pattern. Mains decides everything.
3. No interview. The interview for clerical recruitment was scrapped from the 2016-17 cycle; no stage after Mains scores you.
4. Provisional allotment — IBPS allots banks category-wise from the Mains merit list against reported vacancies; a waitlist tops up resignees.

One condition that bites later: the recruited associate must be proficient in reading, writing and speaking the official language of the state allotted, and some banks test it at joining. Choose centre states with this in mind.

1. Applying for a state whose language you cannot read is the single worst strategy in this exam — allotment follows the state, and language proficiency is verified.
2. Prelims is a filter, not a race: candidates who treat Mains as the real exam from day one outscore those who over-prepare for Prelims.
3. Cut-offs are released with the result, but state-wise and category-wise, so comparisons across states mislead.
4. Scores are normalised across shifts; the exact treatment is disclosable — see the RTI below.

To, The Central Public Information Officer,
Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, Mumbai

Subject: Information under §6(1), RTI Act 2005 — CRP-CSA-XVI, Reg. No. ____

Please provide:
1. My raw and normalised scores, Prelims and Mains, with the normalisation method applied to my shift.
2. The state-wise and category-wise cut-off for each stage of this CRP.
3. The vacancy list reported by banks for my state and category.
4. My provisional allotment status and, if waitlisted, the waitlist position and movement to date.
5. The number of candidates allotted against my state and category.

₹10 IPO enclosed.
[Name, address, signature, date]

IBPS, an autonomous society of the banking industry, is funded by the banks and has designated PIOs; score and cut-off disclosures are routine. Keep the registration number exact.

1. **IBPS's grievance link** for the recruitment in question; keep the ticket number.
2. **RTI** as drafted — 30 days, statutory.
3. **First appeal** within 30 days of an incomplete reply; **second appeal to the CIC** within 90 days.
4. For a genuine processing error with a deadline breathing, a writ before the high court — with the RTI reply as the core exhibit.

Real example. Kashvi Pathak's cousin missed a Mains cut-off by 0.75 in one section. Rather than argue, she filed an RTI for the normalisation applied to her shift. The reply showed her raw score was above several selected candidates in another shift; the difference was the shift-equilibration, applied correctly. She accepted the result — but from facts, not guesswork, and next cycle she cleared it.

Yes. The designation changed to Customer Service Associate; the exam route is the same. The current cycle is CRP-CSA-XVI.

No. It was abolished from the 2016-17 cycle; selection rests on the Mains score.

No. SBI holds its own clerk recruitment, and regional rural banks run under IBPS RRB.

No — it is qualifying. The Mains score alone builds the merit list.

Yes. IBPS has designated Public Information Officers and routinely discloses scores, cut-offs and allotment data.

• IBPS Common Recruitment Process notice for Customer Service Associates — CRP-CSA-XVI
• Interview abolition for clerical recruitment, effective the 2016-17 cycle
• RTI Act 2005, §6, §7, §19

• Government exams — guides and RTI
• IBPS PO — result and RTI guide
• RBI Grade B — guide and RTI
• File RTI online — 12 steps
• The RTI Playbook