SBI Cards Q1: PAT up 19% YoY to ₹664 Cr as credit costs ease, margins widen

SBI Cards opened FY27 with a standalone net profit of ₹664.44 Cr for Q1 (quarter ended June 30, 2026), up 19.5% YoY and 9.0% QoQ, on total income of ₹5,205.36 Cr and revenue from operations of ₹5,040.55 Cr (+3.4% YoY). The profit growth ran far ahead of the modest topline because the print is a credit-cost story, not a revenue one: impairment on financial instruments fell to ₹847.68 Cr from ₹1,351.55 Cr a year ago (−37%) and ₹1,096.82 Cr in Q4, lifting net profit margin to 12.76% from 11.04% a year ago and 11.75% last quarter — clear margin expansion. Finance costs also eased to ₹744.53 Cr (from ₹812.82 Cr YoY) as rates softened. Working the other way, fees-and-commission expenses more than doubled to ₹396.90 Cr (from ₹187.49 Cr YoY), a drag on the operating line.

The reported +19.5% understates the underlying improvement: this quarter's profit is struck after the company reset its ECL model (revised LGD, credit-conversion factor and discounting), which added roughly ₹180 Cr to the impairment charge, plus a ₹27 Cr past-service provision for the newly notified labour codes and a retained ₹70 Cr geopolitical overlay. Adding back the ECL top-up and labour charge (post-tax), adjusted PAT growth is closer to ~47% YoY — so even the raw print, which still shows impairment falling sharply, is conservatively struck. Asset quality corroborates the moderation: Gross NPA improved to 2.04% (from 2.41% in March) and Net NPA to 0.83% (from 1.04%), with provision coverage at 59.88% and capital adequacy a comfortable 25.64%.

The stock went into the print at ₹618, up 1.7% over the past month of trading.

For context: this is the highest quarterly PAT in the last 6 quarters on our records; PAT has now risen for 3 consecutive quarters.

Standalone-only filing — no subsidiaries, so no consolidated results (Note 12); results unaudited, limited-reviewed

The quarter validates management's April guidance that credit costs would 'moderate further' in FY27 — the single most-watched line for the stock — even as they cautioned on an elevated 55-58% cost-to-income band and a downward bias in the revolver mix pressuring yields. No published brokerage consensus PAT figure surfaced for this specific quarter, so the result is read against guidance rather than a street number. Alongside the numbers the board slot also followed a run of senior appointments this quarter (Saurav Ghosh as COO in May, Chander Kant as EVP–Internal Audit in June); these are governance/bench-strength moves with no direct P&L bearing this quarter. The setup into Q2 hinges on whether the ~₹850 Cr quarterly impairment holds after the model reset and whether card acquisitions track the guided 0.9-1.0 million per quarter.