SBI's hiring binge: India's largest public sector bank to hire 12,000 personnel, add 250 branches, says Chairman C.S. Setty
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State Bank of India (SBI) intends to hire about 12,000 personnel and add around 250 new branches to its network in the ongoing financial year, said C .S. Setty, Chairman of the country's biggest lender.
"In terms of recruitment, I think we would be looking at around 11,000 to 12,000 appointments across both clerical and officer cadres this year. This number may vary depending on retirements and emerging requirements, but I expect we should close the year with around 12,000 recruitments," he told PTI in an interaction.
"Last year, we have done fairly large recruitment because we took 1,500 specialist IT officers. This year, we do not need such a large number on the IT (information technology) side," he said.
With a workforce of over 2.45 lakh employees as of March 2026, SBI is among India's largest employers.
SBI had hired 4,640 officers, 19,340 associates, and 1,653 contractual staff in 2025–26, taking the total number of hires to 25,633, as per the bank's annual report for FY26.
SBI to add up to 250 branches in FY27
On the branch expansion side, Setty said that, despite having a large network, there is still some white space in many areas; whether new colonies are coming up or even in commercially active districts, the bank's presence can be improved.
"We also are looking at rationalisation of some of the branches, which means that our number broadly will be growing by maybe 200 to 250 per year on the net side," he said.
SBI, SBI Capital Markets to dilute up to 1% NSE stake
About stake dilution in the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Setty said, SBI and its subsidiary SBI Capital Markets Ltd together plan to dilute up to 1 per cent stake through the exchange's proposed ₹30,000-crore initial public offering (IPO).
"We are participating in that divestment. We propose to divest 0.65 per cent and 0.35 per cent by SBI Capital Markets because both of us hold the stake. So together, about 1 per cent as an SBI group... it could be less depending on any other shareholders joining," he said.
SBI currently holds a 3.23 per cent stake in the NSE, while SBI Capital Markets owns 4.33 per cent in the country's largest stock exchange.
Last week, NSE received regulatory approval for the long-awaited ₹30,000-crore initial public offering (IPO), which could potentially be the country's biggest-ever yet.
The NSE IPO will surpass Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,858.75-crore listing in 2024 as well as LIC of India's ₹20,557.23-crore offering in 2022. It will also dwarf Paytm's (One97 Communications) ₹18,300-crore (2021), Tata Capital's ₹15,511.87-crore (2025) and Coal India's ₹15,200-crore (2010) listing.
SBI rules out immediate monetisation of other subsidiaries
He clarified that there is no monetisation plan for other subsidiaries in the immediate future.
In July, SBI, along with its foreign partner Paris-headquartered Amundi, diluted around a 10 per cent stake in SBI Mutual Fund, including pre IPO. The ₹11,675-crore monetisation by the country's biggest fund house was a huge success as the issue was subscribed 41.66 times.
Post-listing, SBI's holding declined to 55.56 per cent from 61.86 per cent, while Amundi's stake reduced to 32.63 per cent, down 3.7 per cent.