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In the world · Finance · 13 August 2026

Digital banks in Latin America: Nubank in 2026

In Q2 2026, Nubank reached 139 million customers, passed 5 million in Colombia, opened a full bank in Mexico and entered the US.

bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published

In the second quarter of 2026, Nu Holdings, Nubank's parent company, reached 139 million customers in Latin America and posted net income of US$ 1.1 billion, the company's first quarter above US$ 1 billion. Colombia passed 5 million customers, Mexico gained a full bank in August and, in September, Nubank began operating in the United States.

What happened

The figures are in the Form 6-K that Nu Holdings filed with the SEC, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on August 13, 2026. The base of 139 million customers breaks down into about 118 million in Brazil, 15.8 million in Mexico and more than 5 million in Colombia.

Net income of US$ 1.1 billion represented a 49% increase in one year. Revenue reached US$ 5.9 billion, up 39%, and return on equity, ROE, stood at 33%. According to Exame, the quarter also brought a warning sign: delinquency over 90 days rose to 6.9%.

In Mexico, the company launched a full bank in August 2026, which broadens the range of services it can offer in the country. And on September 11, 2026, according to American Banker, Nubank debuted in the United States through a sponsor bank, Lead Bank. In this model, the U.S.-licensed institution holds the accounts, and the digital brand handles the customer experience.

Why it matters

Digital banks changed the way millions of Latin Americans entered the financial system. Accounts with no maintenance fees, cards ordered by phone and service without branches knocked down barriers that, for decades, left many people out. The World Bank's Global Findex 2025 shows the size of the challenge: 79% of the world's adults have an account, but 1.3 billion still do not, and 900 million of them have a cell phone.

Colombia passing 5 million customers shows that the model crosses borders within the region. Markets with different rules, currencies and habits are adopting the same kind of service, which indicates that the pain was similar: access that was expensive, slow and full of paperwork.

Entering the United States through a sponsor bank shows another path, that of a digital brand that uses the infrastructure of an authorized institution to reach a new market. This arrangement separates whoever designs the experience from whoever holds the license.

The delinquency figure is a reminder of the limits of growth. Including people means giving access to credit, but also making sure that credit does not become a trap for those who have just come in.

In Bairo's view

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez was born in Colombia, in 1982, and built his life in Brazil. In his reading, seeing a digital financial service pass 5 million customers in the country where he was born is a sign that Latin America has learned to build infrastructure that connects those who were left out.

For Bairo, the next step is to bring this same logic to where the real economy happens: the wholesale supply centers, the growers and the food buyers. In his view, the account on the phone solved the person's entry into the system; what remains is solving the entry of production, with quotes, invoices, payments and history linked, from grower to buyer and with the least possible friction.

He also reads the sponsor bank model as confirmation of the path he chose: build the experience and the technology, and leave the regulated part to those licensed for it. And he measures everything by the yardstick of lifetime. For Bairo, every line an app eliminates is time given back to those who work.

Where this meets the ecosystem

CEASA Bank, an agribusiness financial platform founded by Bairo that operates on the infrastructure of an authorized institution, follows this design: the technology, the quotes and the experience are its own, while accounts, cards and payment methods go through an authorized institution. The focus is on growers and buyers at the wholesale supply centers, and part of the design is being implemented.

The BTZ Chain is the ecosystem's public record network, which anyone can check in the explorer, proposed to prove that a sale happened and that there is a real person behind it. BICOIN, this network's governance coin, follows the yardstick "1 BTZ = 1 minute of human life", which measures purpose and is neither a price nor an invitation to buy.

Sources

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