One Zero Bank, Israel's digital banking venture, is laying off roughly 25 employees - about 7% of its approximately 350-person workforce - in its third round of job cuts since the start of 2024. The bank will also leave about 10 additional positions unfilled, pushing its total headcount to roughly 10% below its original staffing plan. Unlike previous rounds, this one comes as the bank reports growing revenue and a narrowing loss, suggesting the cuts are driven less by financial distress than by a deliberate bet on automation.
Notifications went out to affected employees on Sunday morning. In a letter to staff, CEO Eyal Gafni called the decision difficult, writing that the departing employees "built ONE ZERO alongside us, invested in it, and played a significant role in our journey and our successes." The cuts are not concentrated in any single department; the bank said adjustments are being made "wherever technology helps us accelerate processes." For consumers increasingly interacting with banks that run on algorithms and automated support systems rather than human staff, questions about data handling and digital security become more pressing - a dynamic that has also fueled broader public interest in tools like VPNs, where understanding what to look for in a VPN has become part of basic digital literacy for anyone managing sensitive financial accounts online.
A Strategy Built Around Leaner Operations
Gafni framed the layoffs as part of a broader shift from One Zero's founding phase to a stage requiring substantial growth without a matching rise in operating costs. "These changes, combined with our clear ambition to be the best and fairest bank in the system, require us to remain a fast, agile, and efficient organization at all times," he wrote, adding that this would let the bank keep growing "without expanding our workforce or cost base." He pointed specifically to advances in artificial intelligence as a means of simplifying and speeding up internal processes. The bank has stopped short of saying laid-off employees are being directly replaced by AI systems, framing the shift instead as a move toward a leaner organizational structure enabled by automation and generative AI tools.
A Pattern of Repeated Cuts
This marks the third layoff round at One Zero in roughly two years. More than 30 employees were dismissed earlier in 2024, followed by another 23 that September, bringing total 2024 layoffs to more than 50. By the end of 2025, the bank's direct workforce stood at 354 - broadly similar to current staffing levels, despite the repeated reductions. That pattern reflects a strategy the bank laid out explicitly in its 2025 reporting: expanding automation and AI use to sustain high operational efficiency while reducing both costs and the manpower needed to run the institution. Payroll expenses fell 8.8% in 2025, to NIS 120 million from NIS 131.7 million the previous year, a decline the bank attributed to "adjusting the workforce mix to current challenges and tightening budgetary discipline."
Improving Numbers, Unresolved Losses
The layoffs come alongside continued financial improvement. In the first half of 2026, revenue rose 33% to NIS 66 million, while operating expenses fell 10% to NIS 149 million. The bank's net loss narrowed 27% to NIS 84 million, and its customer base recently passed 200,000. One Zero's annual loss has also shrunk steadily - from NIS 357 million in 2023 to NIS 268 million in 2024 and NIS 214 million in 2025 - with the bank projecting profitability in 2027. In August, Gafni said the bank was nearing its first profitable month, expected within a few months. Whether automation alone can close the remaining gap, or whether further staffing reductions will follow, remains an open question as One Zero pushes toward sustained profitability.