SBI Card Q2 net profit jumps 52% to Rs 526 crore on low provisions

SBI Card and Payments Services reported a 52 per cent jump in net profit in the July-September (Q2FY23) quarter to Rs 526 crore, thanks to a spike in income and lower provisions. In the year-ago period, it had reported a net profit of Rs 345 crore.

The company, however, missed the Street estimates on net profit as analysts at Bloomberg had predicted a net profit of Rs 627 crore.

Its total income grew 28 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 3,453 crore in Q2 as interest income increased by 26.5 per cent, fees and services income rose by 29.5 per cent, and other income grew 31 per cent YoY.

Impairment losses and bad debts declined 8 per cent YoY to Rs 546 crore, but increased 21 per cent sequentially.

Asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at 2.14 per cent, down 10 basis points (bps) sequentially and 122 bps YoY. Net NPA was down 13 bps to 0.78 per cent during the same time.

The company added 1.3 million new accounts in Q2, up 36 per cent YoY and 43.5 per cent sequentially. Card-in-force grew 18 per cent YoY and 3.5 per cent sequentially to 14.82 million as of Q2FY23.

Spends grew 43 per cent YoY and 4.41 per cent sequentially to Rs 62,306 in Q2FY23. While retail spends jumped 45.12 per cent YoY and 11.88 per cent sequentially to Rs 50,895 crore, corporate spends were up 27.62 per cent YoY and dropped 19 per cent sequentially to Rs 11,411 crore.

Receivables in Q2 were to the tune of Rs 37,730 crore, up 41 per cent YoY. SBI Card has 19.1 per cent and 18 per cent market share in cards in force and spends, respectively, according to the RBI data released for September 2022.