Bank of India Clerk to Officer Promotion 2026 — 813 GBO Posts, Marks Scheme, Cut-off & Merit List

Last updated: October 6, 2026

Bank of India is filling 813 General Banking Officer (JMGS-I) posts by promoting clerical staff in its 2026 promotion round. Applications closed in August and the online test was held on 4 October 2026. Candidates now wait for the merit list. This page sets out how that list is built and what happens to those who make it, using the bank’s own circular. It also covers what a clerk should do to be ready for the next round.

Key dates

The promotion is governed by the settlement of 15 November 2014 between Bank of India’s management and the Federation of Bank of India Staff Unions. That is why the rules below differ from other banks’ clerk-to-officer schemes.

Who could apply

Eligibility depends on a combination of qualification and completed years of clerical service in Bank of India, counted up to 31 August 2026:

The notice’s fine print matters for borderline cases:

• Service means completed years as a full-time permanent clerk in Bank of India, probation included. Periods on leave without pay (NPNA), sabbatical, extraordinary leave or suspension are excluded.
• Staff on sabbatical leave could not take part even if otherwise eligible.
• MCA counts only as a three-year full-time course, and part-time management courses only if they ran at least three years.
• Clerks who came from Bank of Karad, Parur Central Bank or IIBI get one year of credit for every 1.5 years served there.
• Re-employed ex-servicemen get extra credit for armed-forces service: one year for 5–10 years, two years for 10 years or more. They get it only after three years of active service in the bank, and not if they have already used it for promotion from sub-staff to clerk or for a special-allowance post.
• Staff whose earlier promotion result is held in abeyance because of a disciplinary case were told not to apply again.

How the 100 marks are split

Ranking is on a 100-mark total: 20 for service, 15 for educational qualifications and 65 for the online test. There is no interview at this level.

Service (20 marks): one mark per completed year of service as on 31 August 2026, up to 20.

Educational qualifications (15 marks):

The circular caps the qualification total at 15, which means the heads add together. A graduate with CAIIB and an MBA, for example, scores 3 + 10 + 2 = 15. The circular gives no worked example; this is our reading of the cap.

Worked example (our illustration): a graduate clerk with 9 completed years of service and JAIIB starts with 9 + 3 + 5 = 17 marks before the test. Scoring 40 out of 65 in the test takes the total to 57. Adding CAIIB would have been worth five more marks, the same as ten extra correct answers in the test.

The online test

The test is objective: 130 multiple-choice questions in 130 minutes for 65 marks, covering “various areas of Banking / Banking Law & Practice”, with no negative marking. Since 130 questions carry 65 marks, each correct answer is worth half a mark. That works out to about a minute per question, so speed counts as much as depth, and with no penalty for wrong answers every question should be attempted.

To be ranked at all, a candidate needs at least 22 out of 65 in the test (18.75 for SC/ST/PwD candidates). Above that, the merit list goes by the combined 100-mark total, so a strong test score can overtake several years of seniority.

How the merit list and waiting list work

• One combined list. Everyone who clears 22/65 is ranked on total marks (service + qualifications + test) in a single list covering SC, ST and General candidates.
• Ties. Equal totals are broken by seniority as a full-time permanent clerk, then by age (older first).
• Ranking isn’t selection. A candidate counts as selected only when the bank issues an offer letter.
• Reservation. SC/ST/PwD reservation follows Government guidelines. A reserved-category candidate who ranks on general merit takes an unreserved point and is not counted against the reserved quota.
• Waiting lists. Separate lists for SC, ST, PwD and others, each 10% of the category’s selections. They fill vacancies caused by refusals or resignations and stay valid for one year from the promotion date, or until the next promotion notice if that comes first. Anyone left on them must apply again next round.
• Marks disclosure. Candidates not selected are told their marks under each head. Those on a waiting list get theirs only when the list expires, and the bank will not entertain queries about the marks declared.

Where the 813 posts are

Each applicant named one preferred zone for initial posting. Posting follows merit rank: a candidate who doesn’t rank high enough for their chosen zone can be posted anywhere in India, and no promotee stays in the same branch or office (visually impaired officers excepted). Mumbai South, Mumbai North, Navi Mumbai and Head Office count as a single zone.

The notice’s zone-wise allocation (Annexure A) is tentative and can change depending on how many candidates report to each zone. The Mumbai group has the most posts at 98, followed by Madurai (50) and then Chennai, Kolhapur, Rajkot and Visakhapatnam (35 each). Coimbatore, Dhar and Ujjain have 30 each. Several zones show no vacancies this round, including Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, New Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Ludhiana, Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur. The 70 rows add up to 813. Source: Annexure A of the notice dated 13.08.2026.

After promotion: probation, lien and pay

• Probation: one year as a GBO, then confirmation if work, conduct and attendance are satisfactory. The bank may extend probation or revert the officer to the clerical cadre during it.
• Lien: the promotee keeps a lien on a clerk’s post (without any special-pay post) for one year from the date of promotion.
• Refusing or reverting: a clerk who declines the offer, doesn’t report at the posted branch, or asks to revert after accepting is barred from the next promotion round or for one year, whichever is earlier. If the bank reverts someone on its own, that person can apply in the next round.
• Housing: under Regulation 25 of the Bank of India (Officers’) Service Regulations, 1979, officers have no right to bank accommodation, so promotees may need to arrange their own under the subsidised scheme until quarters are available.
• Pay: basic pay on promotion is fixed in the JMGS-I scale under the bank’s fitment rules. The circular does not restate them. Use our promotion fitment calculator for an estimate based on IBA’s model formula for clerk-to-officer fitment (August 2024); Bank of India’s own rules may differ in detail.

If you have a disciplinary case

A clerk punished for gross misconduct under the bipartite settlements can still apply. If selected, the promotion is held for one year from the punishment date when the penalty was a warning, censure or adverse remark, and for two years for any other penalty. A candidate with a charge-sheet, show-cause notice or criminal FIR pending at selection has the promotion kept in abeyance until the case ends and cannot join later rounds meanwhile. If cleared, they are promoted notionally from the original date. That date counts for seniority, but no officer’s pay is due for the period it was held back.

Missed it, or preparing for the next round?

The schedule suggests an annual cycle. The 2026 notice came out in mid-August with the test seven weeks later, and the 2025 round reportedly followed a similar pattern, with a test on 12 October 2025 (as reported by Adda247; we have not seen that year’s circular). Two levers are within your control before the next notice. First, qualifications: JAIIB is worth 5 marks and CAIIB 10, and they must be held by the qualification cut-off date. Second, the test itself, which carries 65 of the 100 marks and rewards broad, fast recall of banking law and practice.

Frequently asked questions

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