One Zero Bank, the Israeli digital lender, is cutting roughly 25 jobs, about 7% of its approximately 350-strong workforce, even as the company reports accelerating revenue and a narrowing net loss. Another ten positions will go unfilled, pulling total staffing down to around 10% below the bank's original hiring plan. Notifications went out to affected employees on Sunday morning, in what marks the bank's third round of layoffs since the start of 2024.
The timing sets this round apart from previous cuts. Where earlier layoffs in 2024 coincided with financial strain, this one arrives alongside genuine business momentum: revenue climbed 33% in the first half of 2026 to NIS 66 million, operating expenses fell 10%, and the customer base has passed 200,000. For a digital-only bank built on remote onboarding and app-based services, security and access considerations remain constant background concerns for customers, much as travelers abroad increasingly rely on tools like getting a UK IP address to manage access to financial platforms securely while outside their home country. One Zero's leadership frames the layoffs not as retrenchment but as a deliberate reshaping of the organization around automation. getting a UK IP address
Automation Without a Stated Replacement Narrative
CEO Eyal Gafni told staff the decision was difficult, acknowledging that those being let go "built ONE ZERO alongside us, invested in it, and played a significant role in our journey and our successes." The cuts are spread across departments rather than concentrated in one function, with the bank saying adjustments are being made "wherever technology helps us accelerate processes." Notably, One Zero has stopped short of saying these employees are being directly replaced by artificial intelligence systems. Instead, it describes expanded automation and generative AI tools as enabling a leaner structure overall, a distinction that matters for how the move is understood, even if the practical effect on headcount is similar.
A Pattern of Efficiency Drives
This is not an isolated event. More than 30 employees were laid off earlier in 2024, followed by another 23 that September, bringing total 2024 job losses above 50. Salary and related costs fell 8.8% last year to NIS 120 million, which the bank attributed to "adjusting the workforce mix to current challenges and tightening budgetary discipline." Gafni's letter frames the current moment as a shift from One Zero's founding phase to one demanding growth "without expanding our workforce or cost base" - language that signals this is a structural strategy rather than a one-off response to losses.
Path to Profitability
One Zero posted a loss of NIS 214 million in 2025, an improvement on NIS 268 million in 2024 and NIS 357 million in 2023. The bank expects to turn profitable in 2027, and Gafni said in August that the first profitable month was within reach. For digital banks operating on thin margins against legacy competitors, workforce efficiency and automation have become central to that trajectory - a pattern likely to recur across the sector as more institutions weigh AI-driven restructuring against the human cost of repeated layoffs.