India’s HDFC Bank is shifting backend employees to customer-facing roles by utilising technology-driven efficiencies.
The country’s largest private lender has reduced its workforce by 3,343 employees in the financial year ended March, as it stepped up automation.
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Its total headcount stood at 211,178 as of 31 March, according to its annual report released on 11 July.
New hiring fell by 3,811 from a year earlier, while non-supervisory employees declined by more than 8,000 to 162,797.
“As we accelerate the transformation toward becoming a technology-led, customer-centric bank, employees need to keep pace,” CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan said in the report.
At the same time, middle management rose by 1,252, junior management grew by 3,543, and senior management saw 15 additions.
The report also highlighted the exit of the bank’s part-time chairman Atanu Chakraborty over ethical concerns.
In March, Chakraborty stepped down, pointing to “certain happenings and practices within the bank, that I have observed over last two years, are not in congruence with my personal values and ethics”.
The bank then hired domestic and international law firms to look into the governance issues.
In June, the independent external legal review commissioned by HDFC found no evidence to support the concerns raised.
Chakraborty, however, called the report “a hugely caveated one and in a sense superfluous” and said “appointing a law firm is just a compliance process.”
Notably, HDFC’s headcount contraction aligns with a broader industry trend as firms increasing lean on technologies like AI.
As per a Bloomberg report in May, JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said the bank would hire more AI talent and “fewer” traditional bankers as the technology spreads.
That month, Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters said the lender was replacing “lower-value human capital” as it expanded AI use, with plans to cut more than 15% of roles by 2030.
Meanwhile, HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery said AI would “destroy” some jobs while creating others, and urged employees to adapt.
