By Tatiana Bautzer and Andre Romani
NEW YORK/SAO PAULO, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Brazilian digital bank Nubank will start offering financial products in the U.S. on Thursday through bank partners, it announced in a securities filing.
The initial products will be high-yield savings accounts, credit cards and remittances through its U.S. bank partner, CEO David Velez and Nubank co-founder and CEO in the U.S. Cristina Junqueira said during an event in Miami.
Nu is partnering with FDIC-insured Lead Bank to provide deposit accounts with a 3.50% yield, as well as free international money transfers and a no-fee credit card with 1.5% cashback.
Nubank’s bank charter was conditionally approved by the OCC in January and now is going through the approval process by the Federal Reserve and FDIC. Junqueira said during the event in Miami she expects the bank to start operating next year. In the interim, Nubank will operate through a partner-bank model.
Nubank shares rose on the news and were last up 1.6%. The shares are down 9% so far this year.
In the future, customers may also trade digital assets, including bitcoin and ethereum. Other products Nubank is considering offering in the U.S. are investments, insurance and small business accounts, Velez said in an interview with Reuters earlier this week.
Velez said the U.S. customers’ access to banking is better than in Latin America, where years ago a large portion of the population was unbanked. But millions still have restricted access to credit and use high-fee products. Nubank will initially target young customers who are more used to digital services and the U.S. Hispanic population, more familiar with the brand that operates in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
Organic growth is the main strategy in the U.S., but Velez said Nubank is attentive to potential opportunities to accelerate growth through acquisitions.
It will take “a number of years” for the U.S. operation to become profitable, the CEO said. In Brazil, its largest market, Nubank took eight years to become profitable. The company’s total net profit crossed $1 billion and beat estimates in the second quarter.
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in New York and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by Kylie Madry and Aurora Ellis)
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