GCCs in India Offer Top Compensation in BFSI Tech Roles — Trends & Sustainability

The recent report by Careernet, “BFSI GCCs in India: Salary Benchmarks and Market Trends,” draws from data on ~50,000 professionals across investment banking, retail/commercial banking, insurance, and financial services GCCs for fiscal year 2025-26. It establishes that investment banking GCCs offer top compensation across roles and experience levels within the BFSI GCC ecosystem in India. [1] [5]

Specialized tech/data roles are central to this premium. For instance, Data Scientists in investment banking earn ₹22.1-46.9 lakh per annum, exceeding what counterparts in retail banking (₹19.9-44.5 lakh) and insurance (₹18.4-44.3 lakh) are paid. Full-Stack Developers in investment banking start at around ₹20.7 lakh and can earn up to ₹47.5 lakh. This difference reflects the criticality attached to managing large-scale, mission-critical systems and complex analytics platforms. [5] [4]

While investment banking leads compensation across all levels, the steepest salary growth is seen from junior to senior roles. Entry level for roles like Scrum Masters and Cybersecurity Specialists starts relatively modestly but accelerates significantly in senior positions, especially in cybersecurity given rising regulatory and risk demands. [1] [5]

Retail and commercial banking, financial services, and insurance GCCs lag behind on peak salaries, but are catching up in terms of digital maturity. They offer more consistent growth across career bands and are increasingly investing in AI, fraud analytics, predictive underwriting, cloud engineering, and cybersecurity functions. Insurance GCCs, for example, show rapid salary expansion at senior levels due to automation and analytics adoption. [4] [5] [7]

Strategically, this has several implications. First, GCCs in investment banking will increasingly act as recruiters of top technical talent, potentially intensifying competition for skilled professionals. Second, organizations across BFSI not currently operating at investment banking GCC pay levels may struggle to retain key technical talent. Third, the shift in compensation aligns with business goals around automation, regulatory precision, resilience, and digital transformation — all of which are cost-intensive but central to competitive differentiation. [4] [5]

Open questions remain. How sustainable are these high salary benchmarks across investment banking GCCs amidst macroeconomic headwinds or regulatory tightening? Will increments keep pace with inflation and global salary inflation in tech/data sectors? What are the retention consequences in non-investment banking segments as employees move toward higher-paying GCC roles? Finally, how will rising salary bills affect overall margins and pricing strategies for GCC operations, particularly as their strategic contributions make up a larger portion of costs?