IBPS CWE 2012 Exam Notification for PO & MT has come out just today for recruitment of Probationary Officers (PO) & Management Trainees (MT) in nineteen Public Sector Banks. As per the notification,while the online form submission starts tomorrow, the last date to apply online for IBPS Common Written Examination for PO/MT 2012 is 30th March, 2012.

You can  Click here to download the IBPS CWE PO/MT 2012 Notification.

This is second time IBPS CWE PO/MT exam is being organised - the first Common Written Exam was held on 18th September, 2011 and the result was declared on 12th December. Subsequently, from the month of January 2012, twelve banks have so far issued recruitment notification for a total of 13812 as shown in the table at right. Seven more banks are going to recruit notification soon. Combined total recruitment for all these nineteen banks should be around 20,000.

So if you are seriously thinking about a banking career, this is the greatest opportunity for you to join the Indian Banking sector through just one common exam for all these banks. What are the eligibility for IBPS CWE? Where to get the forms? How to apply? These are the questions I mean to answer through this blog article. Another blog post titled: IBPS CWE exam pattern, Sample Papers & Books would help you prepare for this banking exam with prep materials.

Without losing any further time, let us understand what IBPS CWE is.

What is IBPS CWE:

IBPS stands for Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, the apex body for recruitment, promotion and placement services in Indian public sector banks. Founded in 1975 as a unit of National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), it became an autonomous body in 1984. You can find more about IBPS in this About Us page.

Prior to 2011, Indian banks were holding written exams for recruitment of PO & MT individually. These proved to be costly and time consuming for each bank. Therefore IBPS was entrusted with the job for organising the Common Written Exam, the scores of which  was used by the nineteen participating Indian PSU banks to shortlist the candidate for further selection process of GD/PI. Three separate exams are being organised by IBPS at present:

1.0 IBPS CWE PO/MT: For selection of  Probationary Officers (PO) & Management Trainees (MT).
3.0 IBPS CWE Clerk: For selection of bank Clerk/Assistants.

So, as you have learnt from above, IBPS CWE is just a Screening exam – subsequent to appearing in IBPS CWE, you are going to be issued IBPS CWE scorecards, just like GATE/CAT/TET scores which will be valid for one year from the date of issue of IBPS CWE Scorecard.

Within this year, when any public sector banks issues recruitment notification, you have to check whether you meet the eligibility criteria of that bank and than apply for the Bank PO/MT positions individually with IBPS CWE scorecard. That bank is than going to shortlist the candidates based on CWE score and than call you for the individual selection process of that bank.

In short, only the written test part of the bank PO/MT selection process has been made common. Rest of the procedure remains same as you can find from following diagram: