There's good news for those aspiring to join public sector banks and for the banks themselves.

Aimed at reducing recruitment-time and the hassles associated with recruitment -- for both banks and candidates -- there will now be a common all-India entrance test from next year onwards for those seeking to join public sector banks.

The recruitment process which now takes about a year to be completed will drop drastically by a third, reducing the mental tension candidates currently go through after an exam.

"There will now be a common pan-India entrance test which will help in reducing recruitment-time by almost a third of what it takes now," Indian Banks Association's chief executive, K Ramakrishnan, told PTI on Wednesday.

Currently, it takes about a year for the recruitment process to be completed by public sector banks, beginning from the advertisement stage to examination and interview stage through to the final recruitment.

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Three-four such common entrance examinations are planned to be conducted every year and "this should begin in 2011," Ramakrishnan said.

The exam will be conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection which will declare the results of the exam and give a scorecard to the candidates, valid for up to one to one-and-a-half-years.

The exams will be mainly for clerical staff and entry-point officers, he said.

With this, candidates need not sit for an entrance exam each time a public sector bank advertises for recruitment.

Once a candidate passes the common entrance exam, all that he or she has to do is to respond to an individual bank's advertisement and appear for an interview.

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"Twenty public sector banks have joined this," Ramakrishnan said, adding "through this exam, we aim to create a pool of people who have passed the exam and who can be recruited by banks."

This should come as a boon to PSBs which can easily and promptly tap this pool for recruitment, saving them both time as well as the hassles of conducting the exams themselves.

The State Bank of India group, will, however, not be a part of this common entrance test. "The SBI group has its own recruitment process and it will continue with it," Ramakrishnan said.

Once the validity period of the scorecard expires, the candidate will have to reappear for the exam, he said.

Going forward, it is planned to hold exams for specialised officers such as rural officers, accountancy, law and agriculture specialists, Ramakrishnan said.