Nubank secured approval from the Central Bank of Brazil to acquire Banco Porto Real de Investimentos, granting the digital lender an official banking license in its primary market.
The authorization allows the company to incorporate a banking institution into its financial conglomerate and comply with Joint Resolution No. 17 from the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council, which regulates the use of the term “bank” by financial entities. The transaction is slated for formal completion in the coming days, according to corporate disclosures.
This new regulatory status adds to the three authorizations under which Nubank already operates in Brazil: payment institution, credit, financing and investment company (financeira), and securities brokerage firm, CTVM reported. Representatives clarified that integrating the banking license into the prudential conglomerate of Nu Pagamentos S.A. will trigger no additional capital or liquidity requirements.
“Trust is built with transparency and respect for those who choose Nubank. In thirteen years, we reached more than 120 million customers in the country, and it is that relationship with Brazilians that sustains our expansion,” said Livia Chanes, CEO of Nubank for Brazil and Latin America.
Chanes added that “the banking license gives continuity to that path and reinforces the commitment we have with those who are by our side and with the national financial system.”
Investment Scale and Financial Inclusion
Brazil serves as the core operational base for the institution, operating for thirteen years and surpassing 120 million customers in the country. For the year, the company earmarked R$45.000 millones in local investments, nearly doubling the capital allocated two years prior (Portafolio reported). In March, Nubank joined the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) shortly after scaling to become the largest private financial institution in the country by customer volume.
Internal company data indicates that 31,5 million individuals—representing roughly one out of every five adults in Brazil—gained entry to accounts, credit lines, and savings products through the platform. Furthermore, the firm calculates that since 2025, its consumers retained R$134.700 millones by avoiding standard bank fees and annual maintenance charges (Valora Analitik noted).
Alongside these metrics, the lender maintained one of the lowest volumes of consumer complaints registered with the Central Bank among major domestic financial organizations and earned the Reclame Aqui Award for nine consecutive years.
Beyond its operations in Brazil, the digital lender has expanded its footprint internationally. In September, during the “The Nu Era” event, the company launched Nu Global, a multi-currency digital account for international users to perform immediate and free transfers to more than 35 countries, a milestone in a journey to position Nu as a leading global digital bank, according to founder and CEO David Vélez.
Operating with deposits custodied by its partner institution Lead Bank, the offering includes a savings account with a 3.50% annual yield and a credit card without management fees with 1.5% unlimited cashback. The account includes a Mastercard virtual card for purchases in over 35 countries without exchange rate surcharges and allows trading crypto assets such as bitcoin and ethereum.
In Mexico, it added 870,000 customers in the quarter, its first period of operation as a bank, and in Colombia, the entity became the largest credit card issuer by number of cardholders.