How to become a law officer in Banks, what are his/her responsibilities and what is the detailed procedure to apply for the post?

Well, there are various exams conducted by IBPS and IBPS specialised officer is one of those exams wherein various specialised officers are selected by them. One among those specialised officers is law officers for the banks. Thus IBPS specialised officer recruitment for Public Sector Banks is done through this recruitment method of IBPS Specialised Officer Examination, in addition to this, some of the banks such as SBI, NABARD, SIDBI conduct their own examinations time to time for such posts. All a candidate needs is to be qualified for the post to apply for the examination to a law officer. The detailed notification can be read from the official website of IBPS. Here we are going to give you a comprehensive detailed structure of the examination regarding the qualification required; syllabus prescribed, prescribed books, the role of a specialised officer more particularly about law officer of the bank, pays and perks and so on.

Eligibility:

All the candidates can appear for this exam they only need to pose these following qualifications them and have to meet the minimum required eligibility requirements

• Graduation in Law: The bare minimum requirement for all the exams is that an applicant needs to have a graduation degree, in this exam; it is Law degree from any recognised university.
• He/she must be aged between 20 to 30 years.
• Must have cleared All India Bar Examination conducted by the Bar Council of India.
• Candidate must have a degree and enrolled as an advocate in State Bar Council under Advocates Act.

The candidate willing to join this service need to fill in an online application as CWE Special Officer by visiting the official website of IBPS, but before doing this he needs to go through the notification in detail and need to read all the guidelines on this matter and then proceed for publication. Once the examination is conducted then and results are out, passing candidates are called for Personal Interview.

Salary and Allowances:

There is no doubt a Law Officer in a bank gets a very handsome salary. The pay scale and salary of a Law officer range from Rs. 34,000-70,000/- excluding other allowances all of which depends on the grade, scale, and rank of the officer.

The Pattern of Exam:

Any exam in IBPS has two stages consisting of Written Test and an Interview. The written exam of the Law Officer is an objective type question which contains various sections

• 75 marks are given for the Professional Knowledge.
• 50 marks are given for General Knowledge and Awareness,
• 25 marks are given for test of English Language and Grammar,
• 50 marks are given for test on Reasoning,

The pattern consists of 200 marks in total and also has negative marking for every wrong answer given which is 0.25 deductions. All the topics hold equal importance and no single topic should be neglected as it can help in improving the overall score. As said earlier an interview is held for the successful candidates, bases on the above mentioned professional knowledge and academic achievements accompanied by other personal questions accessing the personality of an individual. IF everything else goes well then he/she is appointed as a Law officer in any one of the various banks listed under this Examination such as Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and others.

Approach for the Exam:

It true in most of the cases that a candidate applies for some exam and doesn't know how to approach for the exam and the required strategy is unknown. It is ideal that once goes through the previous year question paper and analyse closely as to what is the trend followed while asking questions and what areas need to be focused, depending on which he/she needs to plan a study strategy. As the what to read first, what areas need importance, what areas are little tougher than others, what areas need continues and repeated revision, what are the prescribed and most popular books on the subject matter. It is seen in the recent times that most of the coaching institutes provide mock test packages which ask the model questions and possible questions for upcoming exams, thus it has become important to go through these mock test to prepare yourself for the worst so that you can the best. Alternatively, these mock test question papers are available in the market, in any of the book stalls or Photostat booths which can be an economic way to practice the mock tests.

Role and Responsibility:

Everything about a bank, right from the start to the closure of the bank is governed by various laws of the land; hence a law officer has bigger tasks to perform right from its the beginning, such as compliance with laws and regulations. This goes on during the operation of the bank and even after the closure of it. Also, law officer plays his role from deposits and advancing loan to withdrawal and recovery of the loan amount with interest or may be managing and attaching the collateral securities if needed. In short, a law officer of a bank has a lot of responsibilities.

• Compliance with RBI norms: As has been said earlier, law officer needs to comply with laws, and complying with the norms of RBI is the prime task, this duty also arises because these banks are nationalised banks or scheduled banks and need to abide by various rules and regulations set by the Reserve Bank of India
• Legal Drafting: There are various processes and formalities for the smooth and successful conduct of business of a bank, which also requires framing and drafting of various documents and this task is also performed by a Law officer of the bank
• Representative in legal matters: As it is a matter of money and collateral property bank often faces legal claims and makes legal claims against others, finding itself into legal battles and under such circumstances Law officer is the sole representatives who fight on behalf of bank in the courts of law against all the borrowers, defaulters, fraudsters or any other claimant.
• Legal Counsel of the Bank: Under most of the cases bank faces various procedural lapses or various other operational flaws in the functioning of a bank and that's where a legal officer is called for to give legal opinion or tender legal advice as and when management requires him to do so
• Simplifying Law of Everyday Use: It is very important for the for a better understanding of the management as well as the customers of the bank that, the everyday laws which are applied to transactions which are entered into with customers by the banks are simplified by the law officers. Also, many  times a bank has several branches and they cannot have a law officer for each branch thus if the everyday laws are simplified then functioning of all the branches becomes easier.

The job of a Law Officer is as good as a pillar, which forms the part of the banking system. The only gray area in this field is that the scope for promotion of a Law Officer is not as good as a PO of a Bank, though they may be posted at Regional Offices or Zonal Offices. A Law officer can never get a promotion of a rank of MD-CEO of a bank but it is most likely in the case of a PO to reach to that level. Nonetheless, this shouldn't stop anyone from becoming a Law officer, as it has its own benefits which cannot be ignored.

For further queries and related information, you can approach the Professional Experts at CareerGuide. Hope this will help you!