Indian banks are tightening their workforce, with fresh data showing a steady reduction in employee strength. The trend points to a structural shift in banking operations. As digital transactions rise and physical branch footfalls stabilise, lenders are increasingly relying on automation and artificial intelligence-led underwriting.
Among large private lenders, HDFC Bank saw its total employee count decline from 2.15 lakh in FY25 to 2.11 lakh in FY26. Similarly, Axis Bank trimmed its workforce to 1.01 lakh in FY26 from 1.04 lakh in FY25 and 1.04 lakh in FY24.
“While we added 400 branches during the year, our total workforce declined by 3% year on year, driven by technology leverage and key gains at both employee and branch levels,” Amitabh Chaudhry said in the post earnings media call.
Data for ICICI Bank shows employee strength at 1.3 lakh in FY25, lower than 1.4 lakh in FY24, indicating that rationalisation had begun earlier. At RBL Bank, employee strength fell to 13,316 in FY26 from 14,265 a year earlier, continuing a gradual moderation after peaking in FY25.
DCB Bank Managing Director and CEO Praveen Kutty said that they have gone back to 11,300 people which is lower than around 11, 900 employees the bank had in September 2024.
“So, we are still below that peak (September 2024). But I would tend to imagine that we will close this year with higher number of people as there is still opportunity, and demand,” Kutty said.
Public sector lender Union Bank of India also reported a marginal dip in headcount to 73,885 in FY26 compared with 73,900 in FY25, although its workforce remains broadly stable over the last three years.
The aggregate employee expense for 14 banks, which have announced their quarterly results, stood at Rs 1.04 lakh crore for the financial year ended March 31, marking a growth of 6.14% on year. This growth is the lowest in the last five years, according to data sourced from Capitaline.