State Bank of India is planning to recruit approximately 11,000 to 12,000 staff across clerical and officer cadres in the current financial year, even as it looks to expand its branch network by 200 to 250 locations on a net basis.
SBI Chairman C S Setty shared these details in an interaction with PTI. "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 said.
Setty noted that hiring volumes last year were particularly high because the bank had taken on 1,500 specialist IT officers, a need that does not repeat at the same scale this year. As per SBI's annual report for FY26, the bank hired 4,640 officers, 19,340 associates and 1,653 contractual staff in 2025 to 26, bringing total hires to 25,633.
On branch expansion, Setty said that despite having one of the largest banking networks in the country, there remains scope to improve presence in new residential colonies and commercially active districts. "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.
Separately, Setty confirmed that the SBI group plans to participate in the National Stock Exchange's proposed Rs 30,000-crore initial public offering by divesting up to 1 per cent combined stake. SBI will offload 0.65 per cent while SBI Capital Markets Ltd will divest 0.35 per cent, though the final figure could be lower if other shareholders also participate in the offer for sale.
SBI currently holds a 3.23 per cent stake in NSE, while SBI Capital Markets owns 4.33 per cent in the country's largest stock exchange. NSE received regulatory approval for its long-awaited IPO last week. At Rs 30,000 crore, the offering is set to surpass Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,858.75-crore listing in 2024 and LIC of India's Rs 20,557.23-crore offering in 2022, making it potentially the biggest IPO in the country's history. It would also exceed Paytm's Rs 18,300-crore IPO in 2021, Tata Capital's Rs 15,511.87-crore listing in 2025 and Coal India's Rs 15,200-crore offering in 2010.
Setty clarified that there are no monetisation plans for other SBI subsidiaries in the immediate future.
In July, SBI and its foreign partner Amundi, headquartered in Paris, diluted around 10 per cent stake in SBI Mutual Fund including pre-IPO placements. The Rs 11,675-crore offering was subscribed 41.66 times. Post-listing, SBI's holding in the fund house 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.
