Nu's Mexico bank, two months in

Haverhill Financial Research · News · October 11, 2026

Mexico's banking regulator, the CNBV, approved Nu's bank license on July 10, and Nu began operating as a bank there on August 6. Nu already had about 16 million Mexican customers, 16.5% of the country's adults by its count, and says it is now the largest digital bank in Mexico. A bank license lets Nu offer a wider range of accounts and products, and puts its deposits on the same footing as a traditional bank's.

Mexican customers are worth more, sooner. At the same stage after launch, Nu earns $12.30 a month from an active Mexican customer, compared with $5.60 in Brazil. Fewer Mexicans than Brazilians use bank accounts and credit cards, so a digital lender there faces less competition for the same customer.

Nu is choosing to shrink deposits. Mexican deposits were $5.7 billion at the end of June, slightly lower in the quarter. Nu called it a deliberate deposit-optimization strategy, aimed at lowering what it pays for funding. It suggests Nu is putting cheaper funding ahead of headline deposit growth.

There is a lot of room to lend. Nu lends out only about 35 cents for each dollar of Mexican deposits. Lending more of those deposits is the most direct way the bank license can lift profit, though it brings more credit risk with it.

The group is already very profitable. Across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, Nu earned $1.06 billion in the second quarter, up 49% from a year earlier, on revenue of $5.9 billion, up 39%, and a 33% return on equity.

The third-quarter report will be the first to include Nu's time as a Mexican bank. We will look for Mexican customer and deposit growth since August, any change in the loan-to-deposit ratio, and whether Nu begins to report Mexican lending separately.

The license turns Mexico from a promising expansion into a full banking business, and the early revenue figures suggest each customer there is worth more than in Nu's home market. The next two or three quarters will show whether Nu can lend more without letting credit quality slip. Our full Nu report is in progress.

Nu Holdings second-quarter 2026 results (Form 6-K) and Nu Holdings releases on the Mexican banking license (July 2026) and the start of banking operations (August 2026).

Disclosures. Haverhill Financial Research is a publisher of general financial commentary. This article is not personalized investment advice and does not consider any reader's financial situation; readers should do their own research. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Company figures and guidance can change. The author of this post does not hold positions in the companies named. Data as of October 11, 2026.