(Reuters) -India’s SBI Cards and Payment Services reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by higher provisions for bad loans.
The credit card services company’s profit after tax fell 19% to 5.34 billion rupees (nearly $63 million) for the quarter ended March 31.
Indian lenders have been struggling with asset quality stress, especially in unsecured segments such as credit cards and personal 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% to 12.44 billion rupees in the fourth quarter.
Its net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, expanded 29 basis points to 11.2% on lower finance costs.
Spends by cardholders, or the aggregate amount transacted, increased 11% to 883.65 billion rupees.
Cards-in-force, or the sum of all credit cards issued, rose 10% from the year earlier at the end of March.
Total revenue from operations rose 7.5% to 46.74 billion rupees.
Gross bad loans as a percentage of gross advances stood at 3.08% at the end of March, compared with 3.24% at the end of December and 2.76% a year earlier.
($1 = 85.3150 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
