Alerts and Updates for Bank Promotion Examination (Scale I to Scale II)

These are four separate processes, not four versions of one exam. Each bank fixes its own feeder service, channel structure, test pattern and interview weighting under its own board-approved promotion policy, and the cut-off date against which service is reckoned moves every cycle. Nothing in this table transfers from one bank to another.

Every date here belongs to one named bank and to one cycle only. There is no shared calendar, and no source seen publishes a forward date for a 2026-27 Scale I to Scale II process at any public sector bank.

The most common mistake is treating Scale I to Scale II as one examination with one syllabus and one date. It is not. Each public sector bank promotes its own officers under its own board-approved promotion policy, with its own feeder service requirement, its own channels, its own test and its own interview weighting. Preparation that is not anchored to the candidate's own bank's circular is preparation against the wrong paper.

The two banks whose current-cycle documents could be sourced differ on almost every parameter. Canara Bank fixed three years of qualifying service for the merit channel and five for the normal channel, reckoned as on 01 April 2026. Punjab National Bank instead published channel-wise feeder cut-off dates, with 01 April 2021 for the normal non-rural route and 01 April 2023 for merit and fast track, and attached a separate four-year rural service condition to the rural normal channel. Neither pattern can be read across to the other bank. The operative document is the promotion circular on the officer's own HRMS or intranet, and it is reissued with fresh dates every cycle.

Both sourced circulars fix eligibility against a future reckoning date rather than the date of application. Canara Bank counted qualifying service as it would stand on 01 April 2026 while collecting willingness in September 2025, and Union Bank of India reckoned clerical service as on 31 January 2026 for a February 2026 window. An officer who is a few months short on the day the willingness form opens may still be eligible, and one who counts from the wrong date may miss a cycle that was open. Work out the shortfall against the circular's stated date before concluding you must wait a year.

In both sourced cycles the written test sat six to ten weeks behind a willingness window that stayed open for about a week. Punjab National Bank ran 14 to 21 October 2025 with controlling-office approval required by 23 October 2025, ahead of a 07 December 2025 test. Canara Bank closed willingness on 30 September 2025 for a 23 November 2025 online test. The approval step matters: a form submitted but not approved by the controlling office inside the deadline does not put the officer on the list. Study time is what remains after that window, so the real preparation runway is short and known in advance.

The one promotion mark scheme that could be sourced in detail, Union Bank of India's clerical to Scale-I exercise, awarded 100 marks to each objective test, 20 marks at interview and up to 25 marks for service, experience, rural posting and qualifications, with a 35 per cent qualifying bar for general candidates and 30 per cent for SC, ST and PwD. That architecture, where a non-examinable block of service and posting marks sits alongside the paper, is characteristic of internal promotion and absent from open recruitment. It means a strong paper does not always close a gap opened by posting history, and rural service is frequently the swing component.

Bank of India's publicly posted notice of 01 August 2026 under Project 2026-27/02, with applications from 10 to 25 September 2026, recruits into Scales I to IV from the open market. It is indexed heavily and is not a promotion notice. Its scheme, a 25-mark qualifying English test, a 100-mark professional knowledge paper over 100 composite minutes, one-fourth negative marking and a 60:40 test-to-interview weighting, describes lateral entry, not internal elevation. Serving officers who prepare from it are working to a specification their own bank has not set. Verify the document's own words before treating a scheme as yours.