State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman C S Setty revealed that the bank plans on hiring 16,000 employees yearly as part of its multi-year expansion strategy.
This move aims to strengthen operations, improve customer service and support branch growth across the country. Setty reportedly shared that SBI hopes to carry forward its strong hiring momentum in this year to those beyond it. As of March 2025, SBI had around 2.36 lakh employees, and the bank’s plans for annual hiring will undoubtedly add to this capacity.
SBI has also revealed its branch expansion plan. As a part of this, the bank will open between 200 and 300 branches in FY26. They will primarily focus on micro-markets, emerging residential clusters and underserved regions identified through its internal assessments. As per the executives, this expansion is designed to increase accessibility and deepen the bank’s presence in semi-urban and rural areas where credit and service demand remain strong.
The increasing headcount of the bank has also led to an increase in the bank’s employee expenses by 11% in the first half of FY26 to ₹36,837 crore. This seems to highlight SBI’s commitment to reinforcing frontline operations as the competition for deposits, retail customers and digital adoption intensifies.
Additionally, SBI is also planning on boosting its ATM network through its wholly owned subsidiary, State Bank Operations Support Services. This will be done through “ATM Mitras” that will oversee uptime, cleanliness and maintenance across more than 60,000 machines. They will also support government schemes and handle field sourcing for agriculture and small business applications.
SBI also hopes to have 6,000 support staff in branches to improve on-ground coordination. This, combined with the company’s plans to maintain steady hiring numbers and open new branches, brings many new opportunities for job seekers.
