NEW DELHI: Make sure that you have a good credit score, if you are an aspirant for a job in a bank.Govt on Tuesday told Parliament that banks are increasingly looking at the credit score “to encourage responsible credit behaviour among employees who are entrusted with public funds”.In fact, responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said over last three years, the appointment of 20 candidates were cancelled or offers were withdrawn due to poor credit history. He, however, said that the number is only 0.02% of the candidates selected through the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), which is the testing agency.
“Candidates applying for the common recruitment process conducted by IBPS are required to ensure that they maintain a healthy credit history at the time of joining the participating banks and the minimum credit score as per the policy of participating banks, amended from time to time. However, this is not a pre-condition to apply and not applicable to candidates with no bank account/ credit history” the minister said.The final say on the issue is with the allotted bank and Chaudhury did not mention any cut-off score. In recent years, with banks not connected digitally and credit bureaus coming up, every borrower, including those with credit cards, have a credit score, which changes based not only on repayment of dues but also depends on timely payment.Given that banks are custodian of public funds, lenders are keen to ensure good credit culture among employees, including those who are joining them as trainees, said a banker. For a long time, there has been discussion on also including utilities to evaluate the overall credit score.