Nubank to buy Banco Porto Real for a Brazilian banking licence
Nu Holdings, the parent company of the digital bank Nubank, has entered a share purchase agreement to acquire 100 percent of Banco Porto Real de Investimentos, the company said in a securities filing dated July 20. The deal adds a banking licence to Nubank’s financial conglomerate in Brazil and is subject to approval by the Central Bank of Brazil. Financial terms were not disclosed.
With the acquisition, Nubank meets the requirements of Joint Resolution No. 17, a rule issued by the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council that standardizes how regulated institutions may use brand names. The company had disclosed its intention to add a banking licence in December 2025, according to the filing.
Banco Porto Real was founded in 1992 in Porto Real, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and extends credit to wholesale clients. Its licence will join the authorizations Nubank already holds in Brazil as a payment institution, a credit, financing and investment company, and a securities brokerage. Nubank said the addition imposes no extra capital or liquidity requirements on its Nu Pagamentos conglomerate and that Banco Porto Real’s existing obligations will be honored under the acquisition agreement.
“Brazil is where Nubank was born,” founder and global chief executive David Velez said in the announcement, adding that thirteen years on the country remains the company’s main market, with room to keep expanding its share. For Nubank’s 115 million customers in Brazil, the app, products, brand and institution name all stay the same, the company said.
In March, Nubank joined Febraban, the Brazilian banking federation, and said it would invest 45 billion reais, about $8.8 billion, in its home market this year, nearly twice the amount allocated over the previous two years, according to Retail Banker International.
