The news: Nu, the parent company of the Brazilian neobank Nubank, has won conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a nationally chartered bank in the US.

Nubank’s planned US roadmap mirrors much of its Latin American product lineup—demand deposit accounts, credit cards, digital asset custody, and personal loans—but excludes insurance.

Zoom out: Nubank serves more than 120 million customers and reported more than $4 billion in revenue in Q3 2025. It has expanded from its home market of Brazil to Colombia and Mexico, where it has continued to launch new products.

But Nubank has issues to contend with in its core markets. Revolut, a UK-based neobank, just went live with its regulated banking operations in Mexico. Mercado Pago, a Latin American super app associated with the Mercado Libre ecommerce platform, offers a wide array of financial products. In addition, some traditional incumbents run their own digital banks.

Implications for banks: Nubank will have an uphill climb in the US, if its charter is approved. To compete for Latin American customers, it needs to strike a balance between traditional banking, where megabanks compete for mass-affluent consumers, and neobanks that target consumers underserved by traditional financial institutions. The Latin American community may be that market.

If some US neobanks are a guide, US banks may face a slow bleed as some customers silently switch. But Nubank faces challenges even in the Latin American community. For example, Seis, a neobank for Spanish-speaking immigrants, is shutting down due to withering demand. Nubank’s entry into the US market may have a greater impact on nonbank financial services on which unbanked or underbanked consumers traditionally rely.