On August 13, Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NU) reported second-quarter results built around a number the digital bank had never posted before: $1.1 billion in net income, up 49% year over year and 17% from the first quarter.
The company also crossed 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, and a newly approved banking license turned what had been a credit-first fintech in Mexico into a full-scale bank
Behind that headline figure sits a business leaning harder on artificial intelligence and new customer tiers to keep growth compounding, even as expenses and past-due loans both crept higher in the same period. Finding New Gears For Growth Profitability improved across nearly every measure management pointed to. Net interest margin expanded 180 basis points to 22.9%, and risk-adjusted net interest margin jumped to 12.4% from 9.5% the prior quarter, driven mostly by credit income and a lower cost of credit.
Return on equity held at 33% even as the company kept investing in three markets at once. Nubank is also trying to capture more of each customer’s wallet rather than just adding new ones. In July, it launched Croma, a subscription tier aimed at a “Super Core” segment between its mass-market base and its Ultravioleta high-income brand, where purchase volumes grew 41% year over year.