Nubank is given chance to attract more than just expats in US expansion

Nu Holdings Ltd., the most valuable financial firm of Latin America, sees an opportunity to reach further than just customers from that region with its planned US expansion. “Initially, it’s very clear that our early clients are going to be those early employees,” Cristina Junqueira, co-founder and chief growth official at the company, said at a panel at Bloomberg’s Women, Money & Power event in London. “I think it has a possibility to resonate, even with a much larger American audience outside the Latin America community.” The Sao Paulo-based company said on Tuesday that it had applied for a National Bank charter for its US business, where Junqueira would be CEO. The Fintech said it would be able to offer products such as deposit accounts, credit cards and digital asset oversight once the license was granted. Nubank regards the US market as a ‘big’ opportunity, Junqueira said, as some US states have economies larger, even as Brazil, which is currently the largest market. But the executive said the licensing process is taking time, and Nubank strives for a long -term event in the US. Nubank employed several US drivers this year. Last week, it called Michael Rihani, the former product officer at Coinbase Global Inc., his new crypto officer. In August, it made Eric Young of Snap Inc. hired to serve as chief technology officer. The bank is currently Latin America’s most valuable financial company that is publicly traded after being placed with the Itau Unibanco Holding SA of Brazil for the post this year. Gustavo Schroden, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., said in a note on Tuesday: “This is a good initial step on the accountable market expansion taking into account the size of the US market,” said Gustavo Schroden, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. “For investors, the biggest problem is the potential for management to lose focus.” Junqueira said Nubank did not release its growth opportunities in its current markets, including Brazil, which is still the only profitable operation. “There is a lot of room for us to almost double our income, even with the current customer base that is only mature,” she said. Nubank’s co-founder also said the company still does not see much of the impact of the increase in competition in Latin America of opponents such as Mercadolibre Inc. and Revolut Inc. “Of course there is more competition,” Junqueira said. “It’s great, customers have more choice, but we don’t see that it affects our growth so far.” © 2025 Bloomberg MP This article was generated from an automatic news agency feed without edits to text.