NEW YORK, March 13, 2026, 09:44 EDT
Nu Holdings, which owns Brazil’s digital bank Nubank, hovered near $14 early Friday. Investors had the company’s new international branding rollout in focus, but questions lingered over costs raised in last month’s results.
Timing is a factor here. Nu chose this week to lay out a wider marketing push, right as executives stuck to their view that 2026 marks a turning point. Analysts remain focused on operating costs and cost of risk—the bank’s term for funds reserved against potential loan defaults.
Nu on Tuesday named Kim Farrell, who previously held a top post at TikTok, as its new global marketing director. She’ll report directly to co-founder Cristina Junqueira. Just a day after that announcement, the company pointed to fresh deals with Inter Miami CF and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One—moves aimed at boosting trust and brand awareness in crowded markets like the United States.
Junqueira, speaking this week, pointed out that Nu is taking on financial giants with histories going back more than a century. The company’s U.S. expansion follows its conditional green light in January from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. That approval lets Nu set up a national bank, but the company still needs to meet outstanding requirements, fully fund the new bank within a year, and get it up and running inside 18 months.
Nu’s growth is backed by solid numbers. Fourth-quarter net income clocked in at $894.8 million, jumping from $552.6 million the previous year. Revenue reached $4.86 billion. The customer base in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia climbed to 131 million. David Vélez called out a record $4.9 billion in revenue for the quarter, with return on equity coming in at 33%, a key profitability gauge for banks.
Still, the results didn’t land as a clear victory with investors. Nu’s shares dropped 5.5% in after-hours trading on the day of the report. On the call, Bank of America’s Mario Pierry flagged an uptick in cost of risk, and Yuri Fernandes at JPMorgan noted confusion around the tax line.
Vélez has worked to tamp down those concerns. Speaking to analysts, he described U.S. launch costs for 2026 as “de minimis”—not a significant capital drain, despite higher marketing budgets and some hiring. CFO Guilherme Lago flagged that expenses are likely to climb in the next few quarters, citing return-to-office, AI investments, and globalization efforts. MarketScreener
Tax remains in flux. Lago pointed to a $58 million one-time gain from revalued tax credits on Nu’s balance sheet, after Brazil signed off on a higher corporate tax for fintechs. That’s set to push the rate up to roughly 45%—from the current 40%—starting in 2026, according to Lago. If that tax drag runs into higher costs or softer credit, the stock could stay under pressure.
This isn’t just about Nu. PicPay, another Brazilian digital bank, landed a roughly $2.5 billion valuation when it first hit Nasdaq back in January. Agibank, for its part, ended up chopping its planned U.S. IPO by more than 50% in February, squeezed by valuation concerns across the sector.
Management is sticking with Latin America as the main growth driver for now, prioritizing Brazil and Mexico for both capital deployment and executive focus this year. The U.S. is still in the early prep stages. Wall Street, coming off sharp losses Thursday, opened to a mixed session Friday—a setting that left growth-driven financial stocks under renewed pressure over spending concerns.
