SBI Card shuts offices due to lockdown, but critical processes run as usual

SBI Cards and Payment Services, the country's second-largest credit card issuer, has closed all its offices across India after the government announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown till April 14 due to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The shutdown has been in compliance with the advisories issued by Central and State administrations, but critical processes continue as usual, the company said.

"Our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) has kicked in and all our critical processes are running as usual, with our workforce supporting the critical business operation s remotely from home," company said in its release.

"Digital transformation through our investments in technology over the years has ensured that our core services and operations continue with minimal customer impact while safeguarding our employees, data, systems and assets," it added.

The financial impact of the same is not ascertainable at this stage, the company said, adding the duration of the abovementioned decision taken by the company will depend upon further directions from the authorities.

On the business front, the company discontinued its customer acquisitions process as it is not feasible to run sales activities, but remittance operations are being supported remotely.

"Customer repayments have lately seen a dip, however, these are continuously being monitored especially considering the moratorium announced by RBI and the number of customers availing the same," the SBI Card said.

Company's collections and recovery efforts have been severely impacted due to the shutdown of tele-calling and field collection units.

But, "collection tele-calling has since been restored partially by deploying work from home dialer setup and we are promoting digital payment channels to our customers. This disruption in collections and recoveries process is expected to impact the portfolio quality adversely," the company said.

SBI Card has already executed certain portfolio management actions for its high-risk customers and may further expand the universe of customers who will be offered programs like restructuring and settlements.

RBI has announced COVID-19 Regulatory Package which included the three-month moratorium on loan instalments payments by borrowers.

SBI Card said its board has considered and approved the Moratorium policy, and the same been implemented. "It is applicable to eligible customers (who have no delinquency or overdue with us as of 1st March 2020)."