Abbreviations and Banking Terminology Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Correct answer: Consolidated Banking Statistics

CBS in the reporting context is Consolidated Banking Statistics. The same letters mean Core Banking Solution in the technology context.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Urban Banks Department

The Urban Banks Department was the Reserve Bank department responsible for the regulation and supervision of urban co-operative banks.

It set their licensing, capital, exposure and inspection requirements, and issued the master circulars they worked to. The functions have since been reorganised within the RBI's supervisory structure, but the abbreviation persists in older circulars and in question banks. Note that it is a regulator's department, not a bank - the distractors all read as products or institutions instead.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Federal Financial Assistance

Federal financial assistance is the United States term for funds transferred by the federal government to states, local bodies and other recipients through grants, loans and similar programmes.

The word federal is the marker. Several abbreviations in this topic belong to the American system rather than the Indian one - the Federal Financing Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank among them - and recognising the vocabulary places them at once. In India the analogous transfers are made through the Finance Commission's awards and centrally sponsored schemes.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Central Co-operative Bank

A central co-operative bank occupies the middle tier of the three-tier short-term co-operative credit structure, operating at the district level.

Above it is the state co-operative bank and below it the primary agricultural credit societies in the villages. Its members are those societies rather than individuals, and its function is to channel funds down to them and to balance surpluses and deficits between them. NABARD refinances the structure, and the Reserve Bank regulates its banking business.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Index of Industrial Production

The Index of Industrial Production measures the volume of output of the industrial sector against a base year, covering mining, manufacturing and electricity.

It is published monthly by the National Statistical Office and is one of the most closely watched short-term indicators, since industrial output responds quickly to demand and to policy. Note that it is an index and therefore a relative measure: it reports growth against the base, not the absolute value of production, which is what the national accounts supply.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Unique Identification Code

A unique identification code is an identifier assigned so that an entity or transaction can be referred to without ambiguity anywhere in a system.

Codes of this kind underpin most financial infrastructure, precisely because names are neither unique nor stable: IFSC identifies a bank branch, SWIFT BIC a financial institution internationally, and ISIN a security. Reconciliation across systems depends on such an identifier being assigned once and never reused, which is what "unique" is doing in the phrase.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Export Import Bank of India

The Export-Import Bank of India was established in 1982 as the country's export credit agency, financing and promoting foreign trade.

It lends to Indian exporters, extends buyer's credit and lines of credit to overseas buyers and governments so that they can purchase Indian goods, and supports overseas investment by Indian companies. It is wholly owned by the Government of India. Its lines of credit to developing countries are also an instrument of economic diplomacy, which is why it is often mentioned alongside foreign policy.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Federal Reserve Bank

A Federal Reserve Bank is one of the twelve regional banks that, with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System - the central bank of the United States.

Each serves a district: New York, Chicago, San Francisco and so on. The New York bank is the most prominent, conducting open market operations for the whole System. The structure is deliberately decentralised, and the regional presidents rotate through voting seats on the Federal Open Market Committee alongside the Governors.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade was established in 1963 by the Government of India as an autonomous body to professionalise the country's foreign trade management.

It conducts postgraduate programmes in international business, trains officials and exporters, and carries out research on trade policy. It was granted deemed university status in 2002. Like several institutions in this topic it is an educational and research body rather than a bank, which is usually enough to identify it from a list of financial-sounding alternatives.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Operator

WLAO is a White Label ATM Operator - a non-bank entity authorised by the Reserve Bank to own and operate ATMs under its own brand.

The cash and the accounts remain with sponsor banks; the operator supplies and runs the machine and earns interchange on the transactions. The scheme was permitted in 2012 specifically to extend ATM coverage into smaller towns and rural areas, where banks had little commercial reason to deploy machines of their own. "White label" means the machine carries no bank's brand.