Bank Quiz : English Language | 14 - 08 - 17

Cloze Test

That the merger of six banks with State Bank of India (SBI) was a (1) process and would give considerable grief to the lender was obvious. But the fact that the pain has (2) for one more quarter despite clean-up efforts for more than six months shows that the
country’s largest bank is still figuring out its game as a larger version of itself.

(3), much of the pain on asset quality can be traced to SBI’s five associates that were merged with it. The rise in fresh (4), fall in net interest margin and the bank being (5) with a larger bad loan stock are indicators that it was one expensive merger process.

As of June, nearly 10% of SBI’s loan book was bad, adding up to a massive gross bad loan stock of Rs1.9 trillion. Fresh slippages rose to Rs26,249 crore, higher than the previous quarter but (6) than a year ago. A notable factor was that the lion’s share of slippages was from outside the corporate loan book. Farm loan waivers, end of (7) on loan classification related to demonetization and the merger itself bit SBI badly during the June quarter.

Out of the total slippages, only Rs8,363 crore were corporate loans. Around 40% of slippages were agriculture loans and 35% were from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The management explained that since its staff was (8) with realigning processes after the merger, efforts and follow-ups on loans below Rs50 crore were not done. (9), efforts towards recovery and even mapping accounts onto a common platform were done only for accounts greater than Rs50 crore. Given that the sharp rise in slippages is mainly because of process-related delays, SBI believes its (10) and upgrades will surge in the coming quarters.

1. (A) huge (B) colossal (C) enormous (D) jumbo (E) super

2. (A) stretched (B) pulled (C) expanded (D) inflated (E) overlap

3. (A) absolutely (B) truth (C) truly (D) Indeed (E) well

4. (A) slippers (B) slippages (C) slopes (D) slip (E) slipped

5. (A) frozen (B) perplexed (C) saddled (D) mired (E) stymied 

6. (A) lower (B) low (C) huge (D) higher (E) high 

7. (A) adherence (B) freeze (C) glued (D) forbearance (E) plied 

8. (A) preoccupied (B) absorbed (C) absent (D) rapt (E) deepen 

9. (A) actually (B) Essentially (C) typically (D) factually (E) virtually 

10. (A) return (B) rehabilitation (C) restoration (D) recreation (E) recoveries

Ans 1- (B)

Ans 2- (A)

Ans 3- (D)

Ans 4- (B)

Ans 5- (C)

Ans 6- (A)

Ans 7- (D)

Ans 8- (A)

Ans 9- (B)

Ans 10- (E)