SBI Cards & Payments Q4 Results: Net profit drops 19% to ₹534 crore, revenue up 7.5% YoY; Asset quality declines

SBI Card on Thursday reported a 19 per cent decline in profit to ₹534 crore in the March quarter, on account of a rise in defaults. Pure-play credit card company, promoted by SBI, SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd (SBI Card) had earned a profit of ₹662 crore in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal.

However, total income rose to ₹4,832 crore against ₹4,475 crore in the year-ago period. Interest income too improved to ₹2,415 crore in Q4 FY25 as compared to ₹2,139 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

During the quarter, the gross non-performing assets were at 3.08 per cent of gross advances against 2.76 per cent as of March 31, 2024.

Similarly, net non-performing assets rose to 1.46 per cent as compared to 0.99 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter of previous fiscal.

As a result, impairment losses and bad debts jumped to ₹1,245 crore from ₹944 crore a year ago.

For the full fiscal 2024-25 too, profit declined by 20 per cent to ₹1,916 crore against ₹2,408 crore in the previous financial year.

Total income increased to ₹18,637 crore in FY25 from ₹17,484 crore in the fiscal.

The size of the company's balance sheet as of March 31, 2025, was ₹65,546 crore against ₹58,171 crore a year ago.

SBI Cards and Payment Services was hurt by higher provisions for bad loans. SBI Card has been facing heightened delinquencies, or late payments, over the last few quarters. It had also reported a drop in profit in the previous two quarters.

The company, backed by India's largest lender State Bank of India, said write-offs and provisions for bad loans jumped 32% in the fourth quarter.

Its net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, expanded 29 basis points to 11.2% on lower finance costs.

Cards-in-force, or the sum of all credit cards issued, rose 10% from the year earlier at the end of March.