SBI Card stock in focus after profit rises on lower credit costs

SBI Cards and Payment Services reported a sharp rise in second-quarter profit on October 23, 2026, as improving asset quality reduced provisions. Reuters, published by The Hindu BusinessLine, reported that profit after tax reached INR 778 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with INR 445 crore a year earlier.

Credit costs drive earnings recovery

Loan-loss provisions fell 36.6 percent year over year to INR 819 crore. Gross non-performing assets stood at 1.90 percent at the end of September, down 14 basis points from three months earlier, after the company tightened credit underwriting to address delinquencies.

Total revenue from operations rose 3.6 percent year over year to INR 5,141 crore. Card spending increased 3 percent to INR 1.11 lakh crore, while cards-in-force grew 8 percent to 23.2 million. The figures point to continued volume growth, although the earnings improvement was driven more clearly by lower credit costs than by revenue expansion.

Growth remains tied to disciplined lending

SBI Card's next focus is balancing expansion in card usage with underwriting discipline. Retail and corporate spending supported credit growth in the September quarter, while the lower provision burden gives profitability more room if asset quality remains stable.

SBI Cards and Payment Services issues credit cards in India and serves consumer and corporate spending needs. The company is a unit of State Bank of India and operates in the Indian payments and consumer-finance market. Its business combines card issuance, transaction spending and credit underwriting, making asset quality and funding costs central investment considerations.

Indian financial stocks remain linked to the broader domestic equity market, represented here by the BSE Sensex.

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