Several Visa employees in India reportedly woke up to unexpected layoff emails on July 29 as the payments giant moved ahead with a major global workforce reduction. The emails reportedly arrived between 4 am and 5 am. The layoffs are part of Visa’s plan to eliminate around 2,600 jobs, representing nearly 7 per cent of its global workforce.
Visa Layoffs: How India Employees Were Affected
India appears to have been significantly affected by the latest restructuring, although Visa has not publicly revealed the exact number of employees impacted in the country. Visa had more than 3,500 employees in India, with major technology and corporate operations in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
According to media reports, several India-based employees received their layoff emails before dawn on July 29. In one team consisting of 28 employees, around 10 people were reportedly affected. The layoffs were also not restricted to junior employees. Senior directors, engineering managers and long-serving staff were reportedly among those whose roles were eliminated.
Affected employees were offered severance packages and notice periods of around 15 to 30 days. However, some employees reportedly lost access to company systems within days and were asked to return their laptops and identity cards.
Why Is Visa Cutting Jobs?
Visa says it is looking to improve efficiency and redirect resources towards areas offering stronger growth opportunities. Artificial intelligence is becoming an important part of this strategy. CEO Ryan McInerney has spoken about moving beyond AI tools that simply assist employees and towards agentic AI, where systems can perform tasks with human supervision. According to Reuters, the layoffs have mainly affected technology and product teams.
Visa Layoffs Come Despite Strong Business
The restructuring does not appear to have been triggered by a crisis in Visa’s core business. Consumer spending has remained resilient, while its transaction-based business model limits the credit risks faced by traditional lenders.
The layoffs instead point towards a wider change in how Visa plans to structure its workforce.
Other Companies Also Cutting Jobs
Visa is not alone in reducing staff. Mastercard announced plans to cut around 4 per cent of its global workforce, while Block announced around 4,000 job cuts.
Amazon, Cloudflare, Atlassian and Standard Chartered have also announced workforce reductions as companies increasingly focus on efficiency, restructuring and artificial intelligence.
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First published on: Aug 05, 2026 02:29 PM IST
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