Top Private Banks Lose 10,000+ Employees in FY26, But the Hiring Story Is Mixed

India’s top 10 private banks reduced their combined workforce by 10,000 employees in FY26, taking their total headcount to 739,452 as of March 31, 2026. The decline followed a reduction of 9,637 employees in FY25 and came after strong hiring in FY24.

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Workforce Falls After Two Years of Strong Hiring

The figures are based on an analysis by The Economic Times of annual reports of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Federal Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bandhan Bank and RBL Bank.

Together, these banks had added 83,645 employees in FY24. Their combined workforce is now 2.6% lower than the peak of 759,203 employees recorded two years earlier.

The change does not, however, mean that all 10,000 positions were eliminated through layoffs. The available data show a fall in reported employee headcount and do not establish the reason for every employee’s exit.

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The four largest private-sector banks accounted for most of the decline, as below.

• ICICI Bank: Reduced workforce by 6,633 employees
• HDFC Bank: Reduced workforce by 3,346 employees
• Axis Bank: Reduced workforce by 3,116 employees
• Kotak Mahindra Bank: Reduced workforce by 1,269 employees
• RBL Bank: Reduced its workforce by 949 employees

Together, the four reduced their workforce by 15,313 employees during FY26.

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The trend was not common across all lenders. While the larger private banks saw a decline in headcount, several mid-sized lenders continued to add employees in FY26.

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• Federal Bank: Workforce increased by 1,570 employees
• IndusInd Bank: Workforce increased by 1,491 employees
• YES Bank: Workforce increased by 904 employees
• IDFC FIRST Bank: Workforce increased by 869 employees
• Bandhan Bank: Workforce increased by 365 employees

Technology Changes How Banks Use Employees

The workforce reduction has taken place alongside continued expansion of banking operations. The Economic Times reported that technology, automation and AI are helping banks handle higher business volumes and expand their branch networks without a matching increase in employee numbers.

HDFC Bank has provided a clear example of this change. Sashidhar Jagdishan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, HDFC Bank, wrote in the bank’s annual report:

Our focus is on enabling our people to work more productively, and with greater alignment to our customer needs, leveraging technology.

He added, “We are consciously redeploying talent from backend functions, where we can bring technology-led efficiencies, to customer-facing roles.”

The comments indicate that technology is not being used only to reduce work or employee numbers. In HDFC Bank’s case, some employees are being moved from back-end functions to customer-facing roles as technology improves efficiency. HDFC Bank’s FY26 annual report records 45,902 new employees joining during the year.

Axis Bank Executive Director Subrat Mohanty also cautioned against treating the current workforce reduction as a direct result of AI. According to The Economic Times, he said:

The benefits of AI are yet to fully show up in headcount reduction. A lot of AI support currently is in terms of improving processing speed. The headcount benefit will become visible over the next year.

What It Means for HR and Hiring

The numbers point to a change in the way private banks are planning their workforce. Instead of increasing headcount in line with business and branch expansion, banks are increasingly looking at productivity, technology-enabled processes and redeployment of existing employees.

For HR leaders, this makes workforce planning more important than simply tracking hiring numbers. Roles affected by automation may decline, while demand can grow for employees who can work with technology, manage customers, handle complex cases and support new digital banking processes.

The FY26 figures also show that the shift is not uniform across the private banking sector. Several mid-sized banks increased their employee numbers during the year, while the largest lenders recorded significant reductions.

Therefore, the data supports a story of changing workforce requirements and slower net headcount growth, rather than evidence that AI alone is responsible for 10,114 job losses.

For the banking sector, the more relevant HR question may now be how quickly existing employees can move into roles where technology supports their work, rather than simply how many employees banks can operate with.