Checked 30 September 2026. Figures are from Tables XI.3 and XI.4 of RBI Annual Reports 2018-19 to 2025-26 (calendar years 2017 to 2025, end-December). The 2026-27 report will add 2026. RBI publishes no promotion counts.
RBI publishes no promotion statistics: no count of Assistants promoted to Grade A, no pass rates, no results list [official]. What it does publish, every year in Chapter XI of the Annual Report, is its staff strength by class on 31 December and the number it recruited in each class during the year. This guide puts nine years of those tables together, 2017 to 2025, and shows the one thing they allow us to infer about promotion: a floor, never a count, on how many people joined Class I other than by direct recruitment.
ProSyllabus is an independent study site. We are not affiliated with the Reserve Bank of India, the RBI Services Board or any staff association. Every rule below is quoted or summarised from a published document, and the Bank's Human Resource Management Department (HRMD) decides every promotion and every application.
Read this first: how much is public
The headcounts are official. The floors are our arithmetic and are minimums, not promotion counts.
- [official] Staff strength by class at end-December (Table XI.4) and recruitment by class in the calendar year (Table XI.3), Annual Reports 2018-19 to 2025-26.
- Ours: year-on-year changes and the internal-entry floors. A floor says "at least this many"; the true number is higher whenever officers left.
- Not published: promotions from Class III to Class I, exam pass counts, vacancies other than the 600 of Panel Year 2022 ([reported], Supreme Court 2023).
Annual Reports 2018-19 and 2025-26, Table XI.4.
Staff strength by class, 31 December
Official: Table XI.4 of Annual Reports 2018-19 (2017 and 2018) to 2025-26 (2025).
| 31 December | Class I | Class III | Class IV | Total | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 6,955 | 3,831 | 3,999 | 14,785 | S1 (Annual Report 2018-19) |
| 2018 | 6,522 | 3,497 | 3,774 | 13,793 | S1 (Annual Report 2018-19) |
| 2019 | 6,670 | 3,264 | 3,522 | 13,456 | S2 (Annual Report 2019-20) |
| 2020 | 6,121 | 3,051 | 3,104 | 12,276 | S3 (Annual Report 2020-21) |
| 2021 | 6,598 | 3,337 | 2,921 | 12,856 | S4 (Annual Report 2021-22) |
| 2022 | 6,653 | 3,369 | 3,276 | 13,298 | S5 (Annual Report 2022-23) |
| 2023 | 7,109 | 3,358 | 3,023 | 13,490 | S6 (Annual Report 2023-24) |
| 2024 | 7,325 | 3,496 | 2,699 | 13,520 | S7 (Annual Report 2024-25) |
| 2025 | 7,517 | 3,206 | 2,497 | 13,220 | S8 (Annual Report 2025-26) |
Official, Table XI.4. The 2018-19 report gives both 2017 and 2018.
Read across the nine years (our observations on the official numbers): Class I grew from 6,955 to 7,517, Class III fell from 3,831 to 3,206, and Class IV fell further, from 3,999 to 2,497. Officers are now more than half of all staff. The Class III line is not smooth: it dipped to 3,051 at the end of 2020, recovered to 3,496 at the end of 2024 and fell back in 2025. The 2019-20 report attributes the 2019 fall in total staff to "large-scale retirement and the court case on feeder channel for recruitment of Class III employees" [official].
A conflict of dates: end-December versus end-March
| Reference date | Class I | Class III | Class IV | Total | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 December 2022 | 6,653 | 3,369 | 3,276 | 13,298 | Annual Report 2022-23, Table XI.4 |
| 31 March 2023 | 6,858 | 3,698 | 3,259 | 13,815 | Annual Report 2022-23, text |
Both official; they differ because the dates differ. Every figure on this page is the end-December table figure, so the series is like for like.
Recruitment by class, calendar year
| Year | Class I | Class III | Class IV | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 152 | 27 | 364 (our arithmetic: total minus the classes) | 543 |
| 2019 | 194 | 600 | 156 (our arithmetic: total minus the classes) | 950 |
| 2020 | 9 | 7 | 45 | 61 |
| 2021 | 440 | 875 | 133 | 1,448 |
| 2022 | 52 | 378 | 691 | 1,121 |
| 2023 | 284 | 533 | 65 | 882 |
| 2024 | 269 | 296 | 39 | 604 |
| 2025 | 78 | 167 | 2 | 247 |
Official, Table XI.3. For 2018 and 2019 the Class IV cell is blank in the table; the figure shown is our arithmetic (total minus Classes I and III).
Two features matter to a Class III employee. Class III recruitment runs in large, irregular waves (600 in 2019, 875 in 2021, 533 in 2023), which is what refills the pool the promotion exam draws from. And Class I direct recruitment is small in most years: 9 in 2020, 52 in 2022, 78 in 2025 [official].
What the numbers let us infer about promotion: floors only
Here is the arithmetic, and why it only gives a minimum. Between two year-ends, Class I changes by: direct recruits + everyone who entered Class I any other way − everyone who left. Nobody can leave a negative number of times, so other entry ≥ change in Class I − Class I direct recruits. The other entry is, in practice, mostly promotion from Class III (appointments of "Officers in Grade 'A' (Promotees)", Reg 9) — that last step is our reading. Retirements and resignations of officers are not published by year, so the true figure is higher, possibly much higher.
| Year | Change in Class I (ours) | Class I direct recruits (official) | Floor on other entry (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | -433 | 152 | no bound (change below recruits) |
| 2019 | +148 | 194 | no bound (change below recruits) |
| 2020 | -549 | 9 | no bound (change below recruits) |
| 2021 | +477 | 440 | at least 37 |
| 2022 | +55 | 52 | at least 3 |
| 2023 | +456 | 284 | at least 172 |
| 2024 | +216 | 269 | no bound (change below recruits) |
| 2025 | +192 | 78 | at least 114 |
Our arithmetic from the official Tables XI.3 and XI.4. A floor is a minimum, not a count of promotions. Where the change in Class I is below the number of direct recruits, officers left faster than the data can show, and no floor can be drawn.
These are FLOORS, not promotion counts: the true figure is higher by the number of officers who left in the year. 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2024 give no bound. Source tables: Annual Reports 2019-20 to 2025-26.
Compare with the one reported vacancy figure: the Panel Year 2022 exam had 600 vacancies [reported], while our floor for 2023 is 172. The two are not in conflict. A floor is a minimum, a panel year's promotions need not all take effect in one calendar year, and officer exits are not published. The honest conclusion is narrow: in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025, at least 37, 3, 172 and 114 people respectively entered Class I by a route other than direct recruitment.
Where other pages get this wrong
RBI publishes no count of Class III staff promoted to Grade A.
Commonly published instead: Some pages quote a "success rate" or "number of Assistants promoted every year" for the internal exam.
None of the eight Annual Reports from 2018-19 to 2025-26 gives promotions, pass counts or the number of Assistant Managers promoted. A 2011 Central Information Commission order records that RBI provided year-wise channel data to one RTI applicant, but the data is not in the order (reported). Any figure you see is from somewhere else, and we could not trace one.
What this means for a Class III employee (our reading)
Reading the trend, carefully
- The Class III pool is about 3,200 people (3,206 on 31 December 2025). A single panel year of 600 vacancies, as in 2022, would be close to a fifth of it: promotion is a large road, not a lottery ticket.
- Class I keeps growing while Class III shrinks, so the officer cadre is not only refilled from outside: the floors show internal entry in four of the eight years we can test.
- None of this tells you the current vacancies or the next exam date. Those are in HRMD circulars, which are not public; ask your Regional Office HR section or your union.
Our reading of the official tables and the one reported vacancy figure. Not a forecast.
| Question | Published? | Nearest proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Promotions from Class III to Class I per year | No | Our floors above |
| Vacancies in the internal exam | Only Panel Year 2022 (600), via a court judgment | — |
| Pass rate | No | — |
| Class III and Class I headcount | Yes, every year | Table XI.4 |
| Recruitment by class | Yes, every year | Table XI.3 |
How many Class III employees does RBI have?
3,206 on 31 December 2025, according to Table XI.4 of the Annual Report 2025-26. It was 3,831 on 31 December 2017.
How many officers does RBI have?
7,517 Class I officers on 31 December 2025, out of a total staff of 13,220 (Annual Report 2025-26).
How many RBI Assistants are promoted to Grade A each year?
RBI does not publish it. From the official staff and recruitment tables we can only compute minimums: at least 37 (2021), 3 (2022), 172 (2023) and 114 (2025) entered Class I other than by direct recruitment. These are floors, not counts.
Why can the floor be so low in 2022?
Because a floor ignores exits. If many officers retired in 2022, the true internal entry could be far above 3; the tables do not show retirements by class.
How many people did RBI recruit in 2025?
247 in total: 78 in Class I, 167 in Class III and 2 in Class IV (Table XI.3, Annual Report 2025-26).
Why did RBI's staff fall in 2019?
The 2019-20 Annual Report attributes it to large-scale retirement and the court case on the feeder channel for recruitment of Class III employees.
More in this series
- Assistant to officer: the promotion channels on record
- Grade A pay after promotion: how your basic is fixed
- The other road up: Grade B (DR) as a staff candidate
- Promoted or recruited: two ways into Grade A
- RBI Grade B syllabus: the phases and papers
- RBI Assistant exam: the complete guide
- RBI Assistant syllabus and section-wise preparation
- RBI Assistant exam tips and strategies
Sources
- official — RBI Annual Report 2025-26, Chapter XI (calendar 2025)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2024-25, Chapter XI (calendar 2024)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2023-24, Chapter XI (calendar 2023)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2022-23, Chapter XI (calendar 2022)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2021-22, Chapter XI (calendar 2021)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2020-21, Chapter XI (calendar 2020)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2019-20, Chapter XI (calendar 2019; para XI.40 on the feeder-channel court case)
- official — RBI Annual Report 2018-19, Chapter XI (Tables XI.3 and XI.4: recruitment in and staff strength at end-December 2018)
- official — Reserve Bank of India (Staff) Regulations, 1948, compilation "updated upto 21st April 2005" (Regs 7, 9, 13, 28, 29, 69)
- reported — Supreme Court of India, Civil Appeal No. 529 of 2023, 2023 INSC 613, judgment of 04.07.2023 — quotes RBI circulars of 21.09.2022 and 08.12.2022 on the Assistant Manager Grade 'A' departmental examination (read on indiankanoon)
- reported — Central Information Commission, Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2011/002134/15619 (2011) — RTI on year-wise Grade A promotions by channel; the data is not in the order
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
