Nubank's quarterly income hits $1 billion for the first time

• Key insight: Nubank recorded record quarterly income as it opened Nu Mexico as a bank, is acquiring a Brazilian digital bank for its charter and is building a U.S. bank.
• Supporting data: Nubank's net income for Q2 was $1.1 billion, a 49% increase year over year, while its cost of credit declined 9% quarter over quarter but was 60% higher year over year.
• Forward look: Nubank is working toward opening a U.S. bank within the next year.

Nubank is boosting its balance sheet as it works toward opening banks across the Western Hemisphere, including in the U.S.

Its net income for the second quarter was $1.1 billion, a 49% increase year over year and surpassing $1 billion for the first time in Nubank's history.

"More importantly, we delivered that result while sustaining a record 33% return on equity and continuing to invest across our three markets and in our long-term opportunities," Nubank's newly appointed Chief Financial Officer Rob Livingston said on the company's earnings call Thursday night. "I believe this quarter reflects the strength of the business model. The investments we've made in technology, AI, underwriting and customer experience continue to translate into profitable growth at scale."

The Brazil-based company is also continuing to build a U.S. bank subsidiary after getting conditional charter approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier this year. As the world's largest neobank with 139 million customers as of July of this year, the company is seeking to bring its digital banking services to the U.S., especially its Latin American population. Nubank was previously featured in American Banker's 2025 Innovation of the Year awards for its Under-18 mobile banking accounts.

The company has not communicated a timeline for opening the U.S. bank, but the OCC stipulates that a conditionally approved bank should be capitalized within 12 months and ready to open within 18 months to receive final approval for a national banking charter.

To comply with a recent rule change from Brazil's central bank regulators, Nubank announced last month that it has agreed to acquire a Rio de Janeiro bank called Banco Porto Real de Investimentos and, by extension, its banking charter. Pending final approval, the charter acquisition will have Nubank meet the country's recent rule change requiring the company to obtain a bank license in order to keep the word "bank" in its name.

Company executives did not comment on the deal or the potential Brazil charter acquisition in the company earnings call Thursday.

Nubank has operated as a nonbank fintech in its native Brazil since its founding in 2013 even as it has pursued, and acquired, bank charters in other countries. For example, Nubank officially opened its Mexico bank division after getting a banking charter from the country's regulators earlier this month. As of July 2026 it has 16 million customers, or 16.5% of Mexico's adult population, according to Nu's earnings report.

"We believe that Mexico in particular is at or near an inflection point and is poised to take off in the coming quarters," Needham analysts said in a research note.

Nubank CEO David Velez said on the company earnings call that the opening of Nu Mexico under its new bank charter "completes our transformation from a credit-first fintech into a full-scale digital bank, and it unlocks capabilities we did not have before. 

"Payroll direct deposits strengthen primary banking relationships and customer engagement," he said. "Higher deposit insurance increases confidence in holding balances with us … allowing us to expand into new products and customer segments over time."

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The company also reported an improving credit portfolio compared to prior quarters. Cost of credit, an expense that previously weighed down Nubank's balance sheet, declined 9% from the prior quarter to $1.69 billion but remained 60% higher than this time last year. Net interest margin subsequently expanded to 12.4% from 9.9% a year earlier.

"Nu results provided relief around previously mounting credit concerns as the company printed a healthy risk-adjusted net interest margin and non-performing loans generally consistent with seasonal trends," Keybanc Capital Markets analysts said in a note. "No evidence of a broad weakening in consumer credit was observed in the company's portfolio."

Nubank's AI-powered credit underwriting model, launched in late 2025 for credit cards in Brazil as nuFormer, recently expanded to credit cards in Mexico and unsecured lending in Brazil. The model is also being tested for Colombian cards and SME lending, according to its earnings release.

"Beyond underwriting and customer support, we're using artificial intelligence to optimize decisions across credit, deposits and growth, moving from predicting outcomes to determining the actions that maximize value under real-world constraints," Velez said. "The same understanding of transactions that predicts credit risk also predicts what a customer wants next. It allows us to recommend the products that maximize long-term customer value, personalize the app experience and move toward our vision of an AI private banker."

Velez also recently joined OpenAI's Foundation and Group PBC boards.

"Internally and externally, we think artificial intelligence is the most important technology transformation in our history," he said on the earnings call. "It's early days, but we're seeing it very clearly inside Nubank. From that perspective, for me, getting closer to a company like OpenAI provides a very interesting insight."