India`s SBI Card posts Q2 profit drop as bad loan provisions rise
India's SBI Cards and Payment Services reported a 33% drop in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, as bad loans write-offs and provisions rose.
Profit after tax fell to 4.04 billion rupees ($48.1 million) for July-September from 6.03 billion rupees a year earlier.
Indian lenders have been grappling with elevated bad loans in unsecured segments like credit card.
SBI Card, backed by India's largest lender State Bank of India, said that write-offs and provisions for bad loans jumped 63% to 12.12 billion rupees for the quarter.
Its non-performing assets as a percentage of gross advances worsened to 3.27% at the end of September from 2.43% a year earlier.
Cards-in-force, or the sum of all credit cards issued, rose 10% from the year earlier at the end of September.
Spends by cardholders, or the aggregate amount transacted, grew 3% to 818.93 billion rupees.
Total revenue from operations rose 8% to 44.21 billion rupees from a year earlier.
($1 = 84.0530 Indian rupees)
