State Bank of India (SBI): The bank plans to recruit approximately 11,000 to 12,000 employees during the current financial year. Simultaneously, the country’s largest public sector bank is working on plans to expand its branch network. SBI Chairman C.S. Setty shared this information, noting that the bank intends to open 200 to 250 new branches.
Chairman C.S. Setty stated that while the recruitment figure might fluctuate slightly based on retirements and evolving requirements, the bank expects to hire around 12,000 people by the end of the financial year. He mentioned that the bank had undertaken large-scale hiring last year—including the recruitment of 1,500 specialist IT officers—but there is no need for such a high volume of IT recruitment this year.
As of March 2026, SBI’s total workforce exceeded 2.45 lakh. According to the bank’s annual report, SBI recruited a total of 25,633 employees in the 2025-26 financial year. The Chairman noted that despite already possessing a vast branch network, there remains scope for expansion in several parts of the country. The bank aims to increase its presence in commercially active districts as well as in newly developing residential areas. Setty added that while the bank is rationalizing some branches, it still expects a net increase of approximately 200 to 250 branches annually.
Regarding the proposed divestment of its stake in the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Setty stated that SBI and its subsidiary, SBI Capital Markets, plan to jointly sell about 1 percent of their holding in the exchange. SBI may sell a 0.65 percent stake, while SBI Capital Markets could sell 0.35 percent. However, if other shareholders also sell their stakes, the SBI Group’s divestment could fall below one percent.
Currently, SBI holds a 3.23 percent stake in the NSE, while SBI Capital Markets holds 4.33 percent. Last week, the NSE received regulatory approval for a proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) worth ₹30,000 crore. This could become the country’s largest IPO to date. Prior to this, the largest IPOs included Hyundai Motor India (₹27,858.75 crore in 2024), Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) (₹20,557.23 crore in 2022), Paytm (₹18,300 crore in 2021), Tata Capital (₹15,511.87 crore in 2025), and Coal India (₹15,200 crore in 2010).
