Answer is E.

1. And is necessary as the last service provided by bank is financial services.
2. " By " before staying is necessary because it shows that the bank is staying within the limits. If we don't add " by " it incorrectly adds to a service provided by the bank which is wrong.

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If you are point to comma as a error that probably you are wrong. If there are two legnthy parts connected with co-ordinate conjunction, you can use comma before conjunction.

The parallel structure here is X and Y: If we consider the preposition by inside the parallel structure, we must use by two times. In such case by should be used both in X and in Y.

However we could also consider that the preposition by is outside the parallel structure. In such case we would use by only once. It would cover both X and Y

to quote an example

by eating healthy and sleeping well, I maintain my health.


please help

Skywalker18

please help with the correct reasoning for eliminating (D)

taking an example : by eating healthy and sleeping well, I maintain my health.


or is it related wrong use of comma in (D)

The correct option gives us the following sentence:

By providing such services as (mortgages, home improvement loans, automobile loans, and financial advice) and by staying within the metropolitan areas, Acme Bank has become one of the most profitable savings banks in the nation.

You're right in saying that the second by is not necessary, but it helps show that we are looking at the second item of the main list. Otherwise, the reader could read the sentence like this:
By providing such services as X and Y... (where X is a list of 4 items)

You'll face this problem in any long sentence, or in any sentence in which there are elements that could confuse the reader. You should err on the side of caution and prefer any option that clarifies what the parallel elements are.
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Hi Saksham, this example is not similar to the construct in the sentence under consideration.

The sentence under consideration is similar to the following:

By eating apples, oranges, and mangoes and by sleeping well, I maintain my health.

So, at a macro level, the sentence is conveying:

By eating...and by sleeping well, I maintain my health.

So clearly, I maintain my health by doing two things:
i) By eating
ia) apples,
ib) oranges, and
ic) mangoes

and

ii) By sleeping well

If we don't have the second by, the sentence would be:

By eating apples, oranges, and mangoes and sleeping well, I maintain my health.

At the very least, there is confusion in interpretation, because the sentence could be interpreted as:

I maintain my health:
i) By eating
ia) apples,
ib) oranges, and
ic) mangoes and
id) sleeping well

Absurd interpretation, but nonetheless, the construct is not as lucid as it is, if we repeat the by second time.
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Could anyone suggest an explanation to the fact that if we put parallel marker after "By",we don't need to consider putting "by" again as given in option "E" that ultimately leaves us with option "d" as a correct answer choice...???

Posted from my mobile device

Hi utkarsh0892,

Have you gone through these two posts?
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Hi AjiteshArun, the mentioned links are not working. I have selected E but the doubt still persists regarding the usage of second 'by'.
Thanks,
Ankush

Posted from my mobile device

Hi nkshmalik1,

Those links are to the last and the second to last posts on this thread dated "25 Mar 2019" (16:45 and 20:06 IST). Have you already gone through those posts?
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EducationAisle
^^ in this option, there is a COMMA before the 2nd 'and' that separates the 2nd item (i.e., staying within the metropolitan areas), but in your example the highlighted part could be the part of the first part's item (apples, oranges...). So, is there any chance to be the replica both choice D and your example each other? I am a bit confused here.

by providing...... by staying, is parallel

Financial Advice should be preceded by and as it(F A) is last example in the list.