SBI Card is in focus on the back of its Q1 results, SBI Card witnessed a 22 percent decline in its net profit at Rs 305 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2021 vis-à-vis net profit of Rs 393 crore in the year-ago period. Total income of SBI Card during the quarter rose to Rs 2,451 crore as against Rs 2,196 crore in June 2020. Segment-wise, the interest income in the June quarter of 2021 declined to Rs 1,153 crore from Rs 1,412 crore in the year-ago period, while income from fees and services rose to Rs 1,099 crore from Rs 668 crore. Other income doubled to Rs 89 crore from Rs 43 crore when compared to the year-ago period. Lower operating expense aided earnings, while stress also reduced for the company.

On stress, Rama Mohan Rao Amara, MD & CEO, SBI Card, said, “The stress period was more around in April and May, started around third week of April and lasted up to May. June actually provided the first window of opportunity to ramp-up sourcing, to ramp-up spends. July is looking much better than June. So, our new account acquisition in the first quarter, which was slightly on the lower side as compared to our capacity, we have gained our regular run rate, which is around minimum 3,00,000 per month.”

On card issuance, he said, “Our typical run rate is around 3,00,000 minimum, mostly we source it from bankers. During the first quarter, banker sourcing was less because of branches being impacted, all the branches were not operational in terms of sourcing. But now both the channels, banker as well as open market are coming in that strongly so 3,00,000 is a minimum run rate.”

On spends, Amara said, “Spends have increased, particularly in the discretionary which always takes a backseat during the pandemic, we have seen last year also, once things open up consumer sentiment and confidence comes back then discretionary spends also come back. So, June was much better than May.”

He added, “If I look at the retail spends, the last quarter we ended at Rs 27,000 crore which was much higher than the first quarter of last year. It is almost 63 percent growth.”

On cards spends, Amara said, “It is inching up, very difficult to put a number around that but definitely July seems to be better than June.”

“We hope barring emergence of any third wave or anything we will leverage every opportunity that is available,” he mentioned.

(With inputs from PTI)

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(Edited by : Dipika)