SBI Cards & Payment Services

SBI Cards & Payment Services Limited is a credit card and payments services provider. It is a joint venture between India’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India and the financial services division of General Electric, GE Capital.

Established in October 1998 as SBI Cards & Payment Services Private Limited, the company has its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. In only 10 months of its inception, SBI Cards generated a customer base of 1 lakh credit card users, which surged to 1.5 lakh by February 2000. The company exceeded the 5 lakh customers mark by the end of 2000.

The card company reached the 1 million cardholders milestone within four years of its launch while crossing the 2 million mark in 2006. The company entered the 10 million cards club in 2019.

In December 2017, the State Bank of India and the multinational private equity major Carlyle Group acquired GE Capital’s stake in SBI Cards, later changing the company’s name to the present SBI Cards and Payments Services in August 2019.

SBI Cards is the country’s first ‘pure play credit card’ firm to be listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE in March 2020.

The company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹72,231 crore as of December 20, 2023. SBI Cards shares have dropped nearly 10% in the last 3 years.

SBI Cards business operations

Over a period of 25 years, SBI Cards has become the second largest credit card provider in India with a customer base of 16 million. The company has a wide range of options, including super-premium cards, premium cards, travel and shopping cards, classic cards, exclusive co-branded cards as well as corporate cards.

Its card products are offered in two major categories- personal credit cards and corporate cards.

Personal credit cards

The credit cards under this category include lifestyle credit cards, reward cards, shopping cards, travel and fuel cards and banking partnership cards.

Corporate credit cards

These cards are specifically designed to meet business needs, providing higher efficiencies, achieving increased savings, and ensuring control and compliance. Some major corporate credit cards by SBI Cards include SBI Signature Corporate Card and SBI Platinum Corporate Card.

Financial Highlights

The company reported a double-digit growth of 28% in total revenue from operations at ₹13,666.64 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2023, compared to ₹10,677.27 crore in the preceding fiscal year. The credit card major’s expenses jumped 26.4% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to ₹14,285.67 crore in the year from ₹11,301.52 crore in the previous financial year. The company’s net profit increased by 40% in FY23 to ₹2,258.47 crore from ₹1,616.14 crore reported in FY22. The return on average equity (ROAE) surged 245 basis points (bps) to 25.3%, and cost to income rose 205 bps to 58.9% in FY23. Its operating profit margin expanded to 29.56% in the financial year 2023 from 24.1% in the preceding year. Earnings per Share (EPS) stood at ₹23.92 in FY23, 39.4% higher than ₹17.16 witnessed in the previous financial year.