MUMBAI: The employee count of public sector banks, which has been declining since the wave of mergers that began in 2017, has grown for the first time in five years in the financial year 2025, but their private sector counterparts have seen their headcount declining.
Though the growth is marginal at just about 0.22%, this is the first time that the employee count of state-owned lenders has risen—to 7,57,641 at the end of March 2025 from 7,56,015 in FY24, show the latest data from the Reserve Bank.
On the other hand, private banks saw a 0.86% drop in their employee count to 8,38,150 in FY25 from 8,45,407 in FY24, as they have been focussed on leveraging technology and digital initiatives rather than expanding headcount.
State-run banks earlier calibrated their employee counts as they were focused on consolidation while improving balance sheets. This gained more traction after their mergers beginning in 2017 when five associate banks of SBI were merged into the parent and the again in 2020 when 12 of them merged.
In 2020, the government consolidated 12 banks into four larger entities (PNB, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Union Bank) to create globally competitive banks. This was after the SBI absorbed five of its subsidiaries in 2017. The talks are for a third wave of mergers to reduce the total to just four core anchors (SBI, PNB, BoB, and a Canara-Union Bank structure), absorbing mid-sized banks like IOB, Central Bank, BoM, and BoI.
The April 2020 merger saw Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India merging with Punjab National Bank (PNB) to become the second-largest public sector bank.
Another was Canara Bank merging Syndicate Bank with itself, creating the fourth-largest; Union Bank of India amalgamating Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with itself to emerge as the fifth-largest; and Indian Bank taking over Allahabad Bank to become the seventh-largest.
In the first wave of mergers, State Bank of India (SBI) had merged five of its associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself effective April 2017. The merged associate banks included State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Hyderabad, and State Bank of Patiala. Before this, SBI had absorbed State Bank of Saurashtra in 2008 and State Bank of Indore in 2009 with itself.
Among the state-run banks, the largest State Bank of India has added 3,930 employees to take its headcount to 2,36,226 in FY25, while Punjab National Bank added just 397 employees to 1,02,746 during this period.
Recently, SBI hired over 1,000 probationary officers, with 505 hired in June 2025, and another 541 onboarded in December 2025. The nation’s largest lender plans to hire 18,000 more in FY26, of which around 13,500 will be clerical posts, and 3,000 will be probationary officers and local-based officers, the management had said earlier.
Central Bank of India has been seeing a marginal uptick in the past three years—from 31,610 employees in FY24 and 30,770 in FY23 to 33,081 employees in FY25.
However, Bank of Baroda saw its employee count decline marginally to 73,742 from 74,227 in fiscal 2024, and from 76,513 in the previous fiscal. The bank had earlier said it would add around 3,000 more staff this fiscal.
Bank of India also saw a consistent decline in staff strength, falling from 52,374 in FY23 to 50,944 in FY24, and further to 50,564 in FY25.
Similarly, Canara Bank also saw a marginal decline to 81,260 employees, from 82,638 in FY24 and 84,978 in FY23.
Among the private sector banks, the second largest player ICICI Bank saw its headcount falling by a whopping 7.13% to 1,30,957 in FY25, and thus was the major contributor to the industry wide drop in headcount. On the other hand, the largest player HDFC Bank added 994 employees to 2,14,521, and the third largest Axis Bank added just 121 employees to 1,04,453 in the reporting period.
The overall headcount in the banking system rose to 18,08,587 from 17,87,566 in FY24. Foreign banks’ employee count stood at 28,041, small finance banks had 1,77,797 people on their rolls, with 6,958 in payments banks. Among small finance banks, AU Bank is the largest employer with 50,946.