SBI's total employee strength was over 2.45 lakh as of March 2026. According to the bank's annual report, SBI had hired a total of 25,633 employees in the financial year 2025-26.

The State Bank of India (SBI) plans to hire approximately 11,000 to 12,000 employees in the current financial year. The country's largest public sector bank is also planning to expand its branch network, according to SBI Chairman C.S. Shetty. Shetty said the bank plans to open 200 to 250 new branches.

Chairman C.S. Shetty said that the number of employees to be recruited may increase or decrease slightly depending on retirements and emerging needs, but he expects to have recruited around 12,000 people by the end of the financial year. He said that last year the bank made large-scale hiring, including 1,500 expert IT officers. This year, there is no need for such a large number of IT recruitments.

As of March 2026, SBI's total employee strength was over 2.45 lakh. According to the bank's annual report, SBI had hired a total of 25,633 employees in the financial year 2025-26. The Chairman said that despite having a large branch network, the bank still has scope for expansion in many parts of the country. The bank wants to develop new colonies and increase its presence in commercially active districts. The SBI Chairman said that the bank is also rationalizing some branches and despite this, the number of branches is expected to increase by about 200 to 250 every year.

Regarding the proposed divestment of its stake in the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Shetty said that SBI and its subsidiary SBI Capital Markets together plan to sell approximately 1 percent of their stake in the National Stock Exchange. SBI may sell 0.65 percent and SBI Capital Markets 0.35 percent. However, if other shareholders also sell their stake, the SBI Group's divestment could be less than 1 percent.

SBI currently holds 3.23 percent stake in NSE, and SBI Capital Markets holds 4.33 percent. Last week, NSE received regulatory approval for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) of ₹30,000 crore. This IPO could become the largest IPO in the country so far. Previously, Hyundai Motor India's ₹27,858.75 crore IPO in 2024 was the largest. Furthermore, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) launched an IPO of ₹20,557.23 crore in 2022, Paytm launched an IPO of ₹18,300 crore in 2021, Tata Capital launched an IPO of ₹15,511.87 crore in 2025, and Coal India launched an IPO of ₹15,200 crore in 2010.