Rating Rationale
November 13, 2020 | Mumbai
SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited
'CRISIL AAA/Stable' assigned to NCD
 
Rating Action
Total Bank Loan Facilities Rated Rs.19000 Crore
Long Term Rating CRISIL AAA/Stable (Reaffirmed)
 
Rs.1000 Crore Non Convertible Debentures CRISIL AAA/Stable (Assigned)
Non-Convertible Debentures Aggregating Rs.3100 Crore CRISIL AAA/Stable (Reaffirmed)
Lower Tier II Bonds Aggregating Rs.1700.2 Crore CRISIL AAA/Stable (Reaffirmed)
Rs.1400 Crore Non Convertible Debentures CRISIL AAA/Stable (Withdrawn)
Rs.50 Crore Lower Tier II Bonds CRISIL AAA/Stable (Withdrawn)
Rs.19000 Crore Commercial Paper CRISIL A1+ (Reaffirmed)
1 crore = 10 million
Refer to annexure for Details of Instruments & Bank Facilities
Detailed Rationale

CRISIL has assigned its 'CRISIL AAA/Stable' rating to the Rs.1000 crore non-convertible debentures (NCD) of SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited (SBI Cards) and reaffirmed its ratings on existing debt instruments and bank facilities at 'CRISIL AAA/Stable/CRISIL A1+'. CRISIL has also withdrawn Rs 1400 crore of NCDs and Rs 50 crore of tier 2 bonds as the same has been redeemed and withdrawal is in line with CRISIL's withdrawal policy.
 
CRISIL's ratings of SBI Cards continue to reflect CRISIL's belief that SBI Cards will continue to receive strong support from its majority shareholder, State Bank of India (SBI; rated 'CRISIL AAA/CRISIL AA+1/FAAA2/Stable/CRISIL A1+'), on an ongoing basis as well as in the event of distress. Ownership pattern and shared brand imply a strong moral obligation on SBI to continue supporting SBI Cards in meeting debt obligation in a timely manner.
 
The nationwide lockdown imposed by the GoI to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted disbursements and collections of financial institutions. The lockdown has been eased in a phased manner. However, certain states have implemented local lockdowns. CRISIL believes the eventual lifting of restrictions will continue to be in a phased manner. Any delay in return to normalcy will put further pressure on collections and asset quality metrics of financial institutions.

On the liability side, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced regulatory measures under 'Covid-19 - Regulatory Package', whereby lenders were permitted to grant moratorium on bank loans. CRISIL understands that SBI Cards did not avail of any moratorium on its bank loans. 

On the asset side, SBI Cards has offered moratorium to its borrowers till August 31, 2020. Thereafter, they have extended one-time restructuring to 9% of its total loan book under RBI's resolution plan, after stringent filtering the set of genuinely affected borrowers.
    
SBI Cards' standalone credit risk profile is supported by its improving market position. The company is the second largest player in the credit card industry, with around 1.1 crores cards in circulation and market share of around 18.7% as of Aug 31, 2020. Profitability is also above average, with return on assets of 4.9% during first half of fiscal 2021. However, given the unsecured and inherently risky nature of the business, the company remains susceptible to asset quality challenges.

Analytical Approach

For arriving at the ratings, CRISIL has considered the standalone business and financial risk profiles of SBI Cards and notched up the ratings to those of its parent, SBI. This is because of the strategic importance of SBI Cards to SBI as well as the majority ownership and brand sharing, which enhance the moral obligation to support the entity.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description
Strengths
* Strong support from majority parent
The credit card business is integral to a bank's product offerings for retail customers. SBI Cards houses the entire credit card business for SBI and is, therefore, strategically important to parent. The company receives strong financial, branding, and managerial support from SBI on an ongoing basis. Also, parent has infused its share of equity capital in SBI Cards as and when needed. The company benefits from the strong franchise of SBI and commands a premium in co-branded cards. Senior employees from SBI have been deputed at senior positions in SBI Cards and are involved in its strategic decision making as well as monitoring the operations on a regular basis. SBI holds 69.45% stake in the company and will continue to hold majority stake over the medium term and will continue to provide strong support to SBI Cards both on an ongoing basis and in the event of distress.
  
* Improving market position
The company has grown higher than industry average during the past few years and increased its market share in terms of total cards in force to 18.7% as of August 31, 2020 from around 13.2% at the end of fiscal 2013. Hence, SBI Cards has become the second-largest player in the credit card industry in terms of cards in force and had around Rs 23,978 crore in net card receivables, as of September 30, 2020. In terms of spends, it commanded 20.2% market share in first half of fiscal 2021. The company is expected to continue to benefit from its strong distribution network and SBI's large clientele, and further improve its market share over the medium term.
 
* Above-average profitability
SBI Cards has maintained its return on assets at above 4% for more than past 5 years, supported by healthy interest as well as fee income. Cost of funds has also been maintained at a competitive level, supported by regular funding from SBI. Expenses on sales promotion and advertising have, however, gone up in the past few years because of intensifying competition.
 
Weaknesses
* Asset quality susceptible to unsecured nature of business
SBI Cards is involved in a business that is unsecured in nature. This makes the portfolio inherently risky. The company faced asset quality challenges in the middle of the previous decade. In fiscal 2009, SBI Cards revamped its entire business model and wrote off all its historical delinquencies. The company also tightened its risk management practices over the years and has maintained strong portfolio quality since then. Ability to maintain strong risk management practices, however, remains critical to sustaining asset quality at current levels, especially with sizable increase in cards in force following continuous years of high growth. GNPA ratio ranged between 1.5-3% over past several years. However, due to COVID outbreak followed by slowdown in economy, asset quality has deteriorated with GNPA ratio inching up from 2% as on Mar-20 to 4.3% as on Sep-20. Over and above this, 3.2% of loans would have been classified as NPA if Supreme Court had not ordered an NPA standstill. Further, SBI Cards have restructured ~9% of the total loans under RBI's resolution plan where company has provided flexibility in payment of the credit card outstanding over 12-18 months with an interest rate of 14-16%. Trend in asset quality and its impact on profitability will remain a key rating monitorable.
Liquidity Superior

Given the shorter tenure of assets, SBI Cards' asset-liability management (ALM) profile has cumulative positive mismatches in all the buckets of up to one year as on September 30, 2020. As of September 30, 2020, company had Rs 10,603 crores of scheduled repayments over the next 3 months against expected asset collections of Rs 13,260 crores over the same period. Moreover, company has Rs 7,750 crore of unutilized bank lines as of Sep-20. The company's commercial paper borrowings are also backed by unutilized bank lines.  

Outlook: Stable

CRISIL believes SBI Cards will continue to benefit from parent's strong financial, branding, and managerial support, and will continue to improve its market share while maintaining profitability over the medium term.
 
Rating Sensitivity Factors
Downward Factors
* Any significant reduction in support to SBI Cards or any downward rating action on SBI may result in a corresponding rating action on SBI Cards; and/or
* Deterioration in asset quality (with net credit cost crossing 10%) leading to significant increase in provisioning cost on a steady state basis.

About the Company

SBI Cards is the second-largest player in the credit card business with about 1.1 crore cards in force enjoying a healthy market share of 18.7% as of August 31, 2020. As per IND AS, net profit was Rs 1245 crore on a total income of Rs 9752 crore during fiscal 2020, against a net profit of Rs 865 crore on a total income of Rs 7287 crore in the previous fiscal. Return on assets stood at 5.5% in fiscal 2020. Gross stage 3 assets stood at 2.0% at the end of fiscal 2020 compared to 2.4% at the end of previous fiscal.

1The ratings pertain to Tier-I bonds (under Basel III)
2The rating pertains only to State Bank of Indore's (SBoI's) fixed deposit programme, rated by CRISIL, which has been transferred to SBI following the merger of SBoI with SBI.

Key Financial Indicators (As per IND AS)
As On/For The Period Ended March 31 Unit 2020 2019
Total assets Rs.Cr 25303 20146
Total income Rs.Cr 9752 7287
Profit after tax Rs.Cr 1245 865
Gross stage 3 assets % 2.01 2.4
Gearing Times 3.3 3.8
Return on assets % 5.5 4.8

Any other information: Not applicable

Note on complexity levels of the rated instrument:
CRISIL complexity levels are assigned to various types of financial instruments and are included (where applicable) in the Annexure -- Details of Instrument in this Rating Rationale. For more details on the CRISIL complexity levels, please visit www.crisil.com/complexity-levels.
Annexure - Details of Instrument(s)
ISIN Name of Instrument Date of Allotment Coupon rate (%) Maturity Date Issue size (Rs.Cr) Complexity Level Rating Assigned  with Outlook
INE018E08052 Lower Tier II Bonds 26-Nov-14 9.00% 26-Nov-21 100 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08060 Lower Tier II Bonds 25-Feb-16 9.65% 25-Apr-22 100 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08078 Lower Tier II Bonds 17-Oct-16 8.10% 17-Oct-23 200 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08086 Lower Tier II Bonds 17-Jul-17 8.30% 17-May-23 500 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08144 Lower Tier II Bonds 29-Jan-19 9.55% 29-Jan-29 250 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08169 Lower Tier II Bonds 12-Jun-19 8.99% 12-Jun-29 100 Complex CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08193 Non-Convertible Debentures 26-02-20 7.40% 25-02-25 300 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08201 Non-Convertible Debentures 29-06-20 6.85% 29-06-23 400 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08219 Non-Convertible Debentures 17-08-20 5.75% 17-11-23 500 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08102 Non-Convertible Debentures 18-Jan-18 8.10% 10-May-21 110 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08136 Non-Convertible Debentures 18-Dec-18 9.15% 17-Jun-22 450 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08151 Non-Convertible Debentures 13-May-19 8.55% 12-Aug-22 175 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08177 Non-Convertible Debentures 14-Nov-19 7.60% 14-Feb-23 410 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
INE018E08185 Non-Convertible Debentures 16-Dec-19 7.50% 09-Mar-23 300 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
NA Lower Tier II Bonds* NA NA NA 450.2 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
NA Non-Convertible Debentures* NA NA NA 455 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
NA Non-Convertible Debentures* NA NA NA 1,000 Simple CRISIL AAA/Stable
NA Commercial Paper NA NA 7 to 365 Days 19,000 Simple CRISIL A1+
NA Cash Credit & Working Capital demand loan NA NA NA 19,000 NA CRISIL AAA/Stable
*Yet to be issued
 
Annexure - Details of Rating Withdrawn 
ISIN Name of Instrument Date of Allotment Coupon rate (%) Maturity Date Issue size (Rs.Cr) Complexity Level
INE018E08045 Lower Tier II Bonds 28-Sep-12 9.50% 28-Sep-19 50 Complex
INE018E08094 Non-Convertible Debentures 09-Aug-17 7.55% 07-Aug-20 500 Simple
INE018E08110 Non-Convertible Debentures 18-May-18 8.90% 18-Nov-21* 400 Complex
INE018E08128 Non-Convertible Debentures 17-Oct-18 9.50% 16-Oct-20 500 Simple
Annexure - Rating History for last 3 Years
  Current 2020 (History) 2019  2018  2017  Start of 2017
Instrument Type Outstanding Amount Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Date Rating Rating
Commercial Paper  ST  19000.00  CRISIL A1+  14-02-20  CRISIL A1+  12-09-19  CRISIL A1+  05-07-18  CRISIL A1+  18-10-17  CRISIL A1+  -- 
            12-07-19  CRISIL A1+  16-04-18  CRISIL A1+       
Lower Tier II Bonds  LT  1250.00
13-11-20 
CRISIL AAA/Stable  14-02-20  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-09-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  05-07-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  18-10-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable  CRISIL AAA/Stable 
            12-07-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  16-04-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-05-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable   
Non Convertible Debentures  LT  3045.00
13-11-20 
CRISIL AAA/Stable  14-02-20  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-09-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  05-07-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  18-10-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable  -- 
            12-07-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  16-04-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-05-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable   
Short Term Debt (Including Commercial Paper)  ST                  12-05-17  CRISIL A1+  CRISIL A1+ 
Fund-based Bank Facilities  LT/ST  19000.00  CRISIL AAA/Stable  14-02-20  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-09-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  05-07-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  18-10-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable  CRISIL AAA/Stable 
            12-07-19  CRISIL AAA/Stable  16-04-18  CRISIL AAA/Stable  12-05-17  CRISIL AAA/Stable   
All amounts are in Rs.Cr.
Annexure - Details of various bank facilities
Current facilities Previous facilities
Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating Facility Amount (Rs.Crore) Rating
Cash Credit & Working Capital demand loan 19000 CRISIL AAA/Stable Cash Credit & Working Capital demand loan 16500 CRISIL AAA/Stable
-- 0 -- Proposed Long Term Bank Loan Facility** 2500 CRISIL AAA/Stable
Total 19000 -- Total 19000 --
**Cash credit/working capital demand loan
Links to related criteria
CRISILs Bank Loan Ratings - process, scale and default recognition
Rating Criteria for Finance Companies
CRISILs Criteria for rating short term debt
Criteria for Notching up Stand Alone Ratings of Companies based on Parent Support

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