ALL ABOUT CAIIB EXAM

WHAT IS CAIIB EXAMINATION?

The Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (CAIIB) exam is one of the most prestigious certifications in the Indian banking sector. Conducted by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF).
CAIIB examination comprises two stages:
Stage-1 : Junior Associate of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (JAIIB)
Stage-2: Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (CAIIB)
A student can enroll for CAIIB only after successful completion of JAIIB Exam.

Objective of CAIIB Exam

The exam aims at providing advanced knowledge to bankers which helps them in better decision making. The syllabus covers most of the important aspects such as Treasury Management, Risk Management, Balance Sheet Management, Credit Management, Financial Management, International Banking, Economic Analysis, Business Laws.

Eligibility Criteria

Members of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), who have completed JAIIB Examination and their membership subscription is not in arrears, are eligible to appear in CAIIB exam.

PAPERS OF EXAMINATION:

There are 5 papers in all, out which 4 papers are compulsory and one paper is elective.
The compulsory papers are:
1. Advanced Bank Management
2. Bank Financial Management
3. Advanced Business & Financial Management
4. Banking Regulations and Business Laws
5 options to choose from for an elective paper:
1. Rural Banking
2. Human Resources Management
3. Information Technology & Digital Banking
4. Risk Management
5. Central Banking
As per IIBF rules, the candidates will have the choice to change their CAIIB elective subject in any attempt.

What is on this page?

  1. Eligibility criteria
  2. Papers of examination:
  3. Passing criteria of CAIIB exam
  4. How to choose elective paper
  5. Time limit for passing CAIIB examination
  6. Examination fees
  7. Dates of registration for CAIIB exam for November/December 2024
  8. Date of exam for CAIIB
  9. Medium of examination:
  10. Duration of examination
  11. Mode of examination
  12. Pattern of examination
  13. Type of questions being asked in the exam
  14. Negative marking
  15. Periodicity of exam
  16. Examination centres:
  17. Class of pass criteria for first physical attempt
  18. Courseware
  19. Cut-off date for subject updates
  20. Paper-wise revised syllabus

HOW TO CHOOSE THE ELECTIVE PAPER?

Why elective paper?
While introducing the electives, IIBF intended to give opportunities to the candidates to specialize in the area of their choice. IIBF has also suggested that the candidates may choose the elective in the area they are currently working.
Later they can move to other elective because it will enable appropriate skills/ build up for handling different banking verticals.

How to choose elective paper ?
1. Rural Banking may be opted by candidates who acquired their academic qualification related to rural economy or who are working in the rural environment, since they will be able to relate the working, in many areas, to the syllabus of exam.
2. Human Resources Management may be opted by the candidates who have acquired special HRM skills as part of their academic qualification or they are working in the HRM department of their institutions. It may be suitable for those students also who worked hard to understand HRM Module in Advanced Bank Management paper, since lot many basic concepts of HRM are covered there.
3. Information Technology & Digital Banking – This may be suitable for the candidates who achieved success in the academic qualification related to information technology. Those who have been recruited by banks as IT specialists or those who are working in IT department of banks can also opt for this paper.
4. Risk Management : This paper is suitable for candidates who have been working in risk management departments of their banks. This paper will be very very relevant for those candidates who have gained good confidence in Module B, C and D of Banking Financial Management paper, because more than 50% syllabus of these papers is common. A good preparation of BFM will make the task of handling Risk Management paper, easy.
5. Central Banking – This paper is particular suitable for the candidates working in offices of regulators.

PASSING CRITERIA OF CAIIB EXAM:

The rules here are similar to JAIIB Exam.
1) A candidate is will have to score at least 50 marks out of 100, to qualify as ‘pass’ OR
2) The candidates who appear in all the four papers in one attempt will be declared pass if they secure at least 45 marks in each subject with an aggregate of 50% marks (i.e. at least 250 marks) in all subjects of the examination.
3) Where a candidate has passed in one or more papers, in an attempt, he is allowed to retain the credit for such paper, till the expiry of the time limit for passing the examination, in other attempts.

TIME LIMIT FOR PASSING CAIIB EXAMINATION:

IIBF has laid very clear rules on this aspect. In order to avoid confusions, the candidates must read the IIBF original rules. These rules broadly make the following provision:
1. The candidates get a total of 5 attempts for completion of CAIIB exam, within a maximum period of three years, whichever is earlier, from the time he/she registers for the exam. It is not necessary that these 5 attempts should be consecutive (i.e. continuously one after other)
2. Those who are not able to pass the examination within the maximum stipulated time period of 3 years or 5 attempts, whichever is earlier, have to re-enrol themselves on fresh basis. Such candidates are not be given credit/s for subject/s passed earlier, if any.
3. Time limit of 3 years or 5 attempts, whichever is earlier, begins from the date of registration for the first attempt. The attempts will be counted continuously, irrespective of whether the candidate appears for any examination or not. For example, if a candidates has registered herself / himself for May 2023 attempt, the first attempt will be taken as May 2023 and last attempt shall be counted as 3 years or 5 attempts, whichever is earlier.

IMPLICATIONS OF 5 ATTEMPTS 3 YEARS, WHICHEVER EARLIER, RULE
IIBF rules provide as under:
a) Normally a candidate is eligible to apply for any 5 examinations out of the 6 examinations conducted by IIBF within the stipulated period of three years.
b) If a candidate avails all five attempts before completion of three years, he/she will be required to re-enrol themselves afresh. c) Similarly, if a candidate does not avail five attempts but the stipulated period of three years is over, he/she will be required to re-enrol themselves afresh.

EXAMINATION FEES:

As per extant regulations of IIBF, the candidates are required to Register for every attempt separately.
The date for registration are announced by the Institute in advance, to provide sufficient time to the candidate, to make the fee payment conveniently.
The fee structure for the examination centres in India is as under:
1) First attempt fee : Rs.5,000/-
2) 2nd attempt fee : Rs.1,300/-
3) 3rd attempt fee : Rs.1,300/-
4) 4th attempt fee : Rs.1,300/-
5) 5th attempt fee : Rs.1,300/-
The convenience charges and Taxes are applicable over and above the fee mentioned above.

ADDITIONAL FEE
In order to streamline the traffic for registration, the Institute charges regular examination fee to candidates who register for the examination during the first week of registration.
For 2nd and 3rd week of registration, in addition to regular examination fee additional fee shall be Rs. 100/.
For 4th week of registration, additional fee shall be Rs. 200/-.
If for any reasons, the IIBF extends the registration date beyond 4 weeks, additional fee shall be Rs. 200/- for the extended days.

REFUND OF FEE – While making fee payment, the candidate must bear in mind that the fees once paid will NOT be refunded or adjusted by IIBF.

HOW TO AVOID PAYING PENALTY FOR LATE REGISTRATION
It is in the interest of the candidates to get themselves registered, as soon as the Registration is opened. By doing so, the candidates will be able to avoid rush, the worry to get registered and late fee penalty.

DATES OF REGISTRATION FOR CAIIB EXAM FOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

1. With normal fee : September 03 to 09, 2024
2 Normal fee + Rs.100 : September 10 to 16, 2024
3 Normal fee + Rs.200 : September 17 to 23, 2024

DATE OF EXAM FOR CAIIB

1 Advanced Bank Management : Nov 24, 2024 (Sunday)
2 Bank Financial Management : Dec 01, 2024 (Sunday)
3 Advanced Business and Financial Management : Dec 08, 2024 (Sunday)
4 Banking Regulations and Business Law : Dec 14, 2024 (Saturday)
5 Elective paper : Dec 15, 2024 (Sunday)

MEDIUM OF EXAMINATION:

IIBF provides to the candidates, the following options regarding the medium of examination:
1 Hindi or
2 English
Candidates are expected by the Institute to clearly fill in their choice of medium at the time of registration of application.

CHANGE OF MEDIUM
As per extant IIBF rules, change of medium is not be allowed at a later stage, in any case.

DURATION OF EXAMINATION:

The duration of the examination is of 2 hours.

MODE OF EXAMINATION

The examination is held in Online Mode only

PATTERN OF EXAMINATION:

IIBF rules are quite elaborative and make the following provisions:
(i) Question Paper will contain 100 objective type multiple choice questions for 100 marks including questions based on case studies/ case lets. The Institute may however vary the number of questions to be asked for a subject.
(ii) There may be some numerical questions in some of the CAIIB subjects where, no options will be provided. These questions will not be in the MCQ pattern and the answer has to be keyed in by the candidate.
(iii) Questions for the examination will be asked for:
A Knowledge testing
B Conceptual grasp
C Case analysis
D Analytical/ logical exposition
E Problem solving

TYPE OF QUESTIONS BEING ASKED IN THE EXAM

1) Single statement – multiple options questions.
2) Multi statement – multiple options questions
3) True and false questions
4) Fill in the blanks questions,
5) Match questions
6 Case study questions

MARKS VALUE OF INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS
1) It is not necessary that all questions carry equal marks
2) Depending upon level of difficulty, different questions, may carry different value/marks

NEGATIVE MARKING

Although in a communication dated 7th Sept 2022, IIBF CEO had indicated that there will be negative marking for wrong answers. But this was later with held.
As per extant rules, there is no negative marking for wrong answers.

PERIODICITY OF EXAM

The institutes, normally announces the date and publishes on its website for both the phases i.e. examinations taking place in first half-year (normally May and June) and in 2nd half-year (normally in November and December) in the beginning of the calendar year (normally in the month of February or March).
1) Institute conducts examination on half yearly basis.
2) Examination is conducted on pre-announced dates published on IIBF website. The institute holds the discretion to change the periodicity of the examination, depending upon the requirement of banking industry.

EXAMINATION CENTRES:

1) List of Examination centres is made available on the website of the Institute
2) As a general practice, the institute conducts examination in those centers, where there are 20 or more candidates.
3) Normally the examination is conducted on consecutive Sundays. But now a days, few examinations are conducted, both on Sunday as well as Saturday, when it is a holiday.

“CLASS OF PASS” CRITERIA FOR FIRST PHYSICAL ATTEMPT

IIBF follows the undernoted rules for this:
1) 1st physical attempt of the candidate at the examination is taken as first attempt for awarding class of pass.
2) IIBF has clarified that, the candidate should not have attempted any of the subject/s pertaining to the examination concerned any time in the past and has to pass all the subject as per the passing criteria and secure prescribed marks for awarding class of pass.
There are two categories within the Class of Pass criteria, namely:
1) First Class: 60% or more marks in aggregate and pass in all the subjects in the 1st physical attempt
2) First Class with Distinction: 70% or more marks in aggregate and 60% or more marks in each subject in the 1st physical attempt.

WHICH CANDIDATES ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR CLASS OF PASS?
Candidates re-enrolling for the examination after exhausting all permissible attempts as per the time limit rule will not be considered for awarding class.

COURSEWARE

Before deciding on the courseware, the candidate should understand the requirement of examination (i.e. type of questions).
As mentioned above, generally 6 types of questions are asked namely, 1) Single statement – multiple options questions, 2) Multi statement – multiple options questions, 3) True and false questions, 4) Fill in the blanks questions, 5) Match questions, 6) Case study questions.
Whichever study material a student decides to buy, should serve the above requirement.

ADDITIONAL COURSEWARE
Since the banking and finance fields are dynamic and rules & regulations undergo quick changes, the courseware available with IBF alone should not be considered as the only source of information while preparing for the examinations.
Accordingly, the Institute has advised the candidates to go through the updates put on the IIBF website from time to time and go through Master Circulars/ Master Directions issued by RBI and publications of IIBF like IIBF Vision, Bank Quest, etc.
Candidates have also been advised by IIBF, to visit the websites of organizations like RBI, SEBI, BIS, IRDAI, FEDAI etc. besides going through other books & publications covering the subject/ exam concerned.

CUT-OFF DATE FOR SUBJECT UPDATES

As per practice followed by IIBF, the questions are asked in each exam about the recent developments/ guidelines issued by the regulator (s) to test if the candidates keep themselves abreast of the current developments.
There is possibility that some changes have taken place from the date the preparation of question papers and the dates of the actual examinations.
In order to address such issues effectively, the Institute has suggested to observe the following rules:
1) For the examinations to be conducted during the period March to August of a calendar year, instructions/ guidelines issued by the regulator(s) and important developments in banking and finance up to 31st December will be considered for inclusion in the question papers.
2) For the examinations to be conducted for the period September to February of a calendar year, instructions/ guidelines issued by the regulator(s) and important developments in banking and finance up to 30th June will only be considered for the purpose of inclusion in the question papers.

PAPER-WISE REVISED SYLLABUS

COMPULSORY PAPER I: ADVANCED BANK MANAGEMENT
Module A: Statistics
Module B: Human Resource Management
Module C: Credit Management
Module D: Compliance in Banks & Corporate Governance

COMPULSORY PAPER II: BANK FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Module A: International Banking
Module B: Risk Management
Module C: Treasury Management
Module D: Balance Sheet Management

COMPULSORY PAPER III: ADVANCED BUSINESS & FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Module A: The Management Process
Module B: Advanced Concepts of Financial Management
Module C: Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions
Module D: Emerging Business Solutions

COMPULSORY SUBJECT IV: BANKING REGULATIONS AND BUSINESS LAWS
Module A: Regulations and Compliance
Module B: Important Acts/Laws & Legal Aspects of Banking Operations – Part A
Module C: Important Acts/Laws & Legal Aspects of Banking Operations – Part B
Module D: Commercial & Other Laws with Reference to Banking Operations

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