The App That Became a Bank — And the Biggest One in Mexico

Seven years ago, Nubank entered Mexico as a no-fee credit card issuer. On July 9, 2026, it finished the opposite journey: Mexico's banking regulator authorized it to switch on as a full multiple bank — the last step in a transformation that started with a licence approval back in April 2025.

What just happened

The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), working alongside Banco de México and the Ministry of Finance, granted Nu México its Operations Authorization — regulatory language for "you may now actually function as a bank," not merely hold a licence for one. Nu called it the final and conclusive step of the process. Under Mexican banking rules, the company now has 30 calendar days to complete the operational switch-over, during which customer experience stays unchanged.

The scale nobody saw coming

Nu México isn't a scrappy challenger anymore. It counts more than 15 million customers — roughly 15% of the country's adult population — adds around 12,000 new customers a day, and reaches 98% of Mexican municipalities. It crossed breakeven in Q1 2026 and now holds close to $5.9 billion in deposits. Founder David Vélez has committed a further $4.2 billion to the market through 2030.

What a banking licence actually unlocks

Until now, Nu México operated as a SOFIPO — a limited-scope savings institution that can take deposits and issue cards and loans, but not much else. A full banking licence changes the product ceiling entirely: payroll accounts, higher deposit limits, and a broader range of credit and investment products all become possible. Payroll is the real prize here — in Mexico, only a little over a third of adults hold a payroll account, and the vast majority of those sit with just four incumbent banks. That's the market Nu is now cleared to compete for directly.

Why it matters

This isn't an isolated Mexico story. Nu is running the same playbook in the US, where it holds a conditional national bank charter application, and the pattern across Latin America is becoming familiar: regulators are increasingly willing to license fintechs into full banks rather than leave them permanently boxed into narrower charters. For anyone watching correspondent banking and payment licensing, that's the signal worth tracking — the ceiling on what a "fintech" is allowed to become keeps rising.

Source: Nu Holdings press release and CNBV notice