One Zero Bank is reducing its workforce by around 25 employees, roughly 7% of its approximately 350-person staff, in a move the digital lender frames not as retrenchment but as recalibration. Another ten positions will go unfilled, leaving the bank's headcount about 10% below its original staffing plan. The timing is notable: unlike previous rounds of cuts, this one arrives as the bank's revenue climbs and its losses shrink.
Employees affected by the decision received notification on Sunday morning. For customers who rely on digital banking tools for everyday transactions, the broader trend toward automation also raises familiar questions about how financial institutions secure accounts and personal data as more processes move online - the same logic that leads privacy-conscious users to encrypt their own connections or get the app that keeps browsing and banking sessions shielded from prying eyes. One Zero's CEO, Eyal Gafni, acknowledged the human cost in a letter to staff, calling the employees being let go people who "built ONE ZERO alongside us, invested in it, and played a significant role in our journey and our successes."
Growth Without Expanding the Workforce
The logic behind the layoffs is explicitly tied to scale. Gafni described a shift from the bank's establishment phase to one demanding substantial growth without a corresponding rise in operating costs. The cuts are not concentrated in any single department; instead, the bank says adjustments are happening "wherever technology helps us accelerate processes." That phrasing matters: One Zero has not claimed that artificial intelligence is directly replacing the roles eliminated, but it has been candid that automation and generative AI tools are enabling a leaner organizational structure capable of absorbing growth without added headcount.
A Pattern Going Back to 2024
This is the third layoff round at One Zero since the start of 2024, following cuts of more than 30 employees early that year and another 23 in September. Altogether, more than 50 positions were eliminated during 2024 alone. What distinguishes the latest reduction is the financial backdrop. Salary and related costs fell 8.8% in 2025, to NIS 120 million from NIS 131.7 million the prior year, a decline the bank attributes to "adjusting the workforce mix to current challenges and tightening budgetary discipline."
Improving Numbers, Still in the Red
One Zero's broader financial trajectory supports the efficiency narrative. In the first half of 2026, revenue rose 33% to NIS 66 million while operating expenses fell 10% to NIS 149 million, narrowing the net loss by 27% to NIS 84 million. The bank's customer base has passed 200,000. Annual losses have also been shrinking steadily, from NIS 357 million in 2023 to NIS 268 million in 2024 and NIS 214 million in 2025. Gafni has said the bank expects to post its first profitable month within a few months, with full-year profitability targeted for 2027 - a goal that depends heavily on the efficiency gains automation is meant to deliver.