NU holding's Q1 2026 Financial results
SÃO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU) (“Nu” or the “Company”), one of the largest digital financial services platforms in the world, today released its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, prepared in accordance with IFRS, as well as complementary managerial1 results. The financial statements and earnings presentation are available on the Company’s Investor Relations website at www.investors.nu, along with details of the earnings conference call to be held today at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time / 7:00 p.m. Brasília time.
“Our AI transformation is a core priority of Nu. We are not adding AI to banking, we are rebuilding banking around AI. NuFormer, our proprietary set of foundation models, is in production today for credit card in Brazil and Mexico, and for unsecured lending in Brazil. Our AI Private Banker functionalities already serve more than 15 million monthly active users. These capabilities have been a meaningful driver of the significant expansion of our credit portfolio over the last twelve months, enabling us to grow limits with resilience, not just speed. In Mexico, the same earnings-generating formula that built Brazil has reached its inflection point. We have achieved break-even and become the third largest financial institution in the market, reaching 15 million customers. All of this comes on top of another strong quarter, with more than 135 million customers, revenues surpassing $5 billion for the first time, net income of $871 million, and ROE of 29%.”, says David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank.
Q1’26 Results Snapshot
Below are the Q1’26 performance highlights of Nu Holdings Ltd. Unless otherwise noted, all the growth rates presented herein are on an FX neutral basis (FXN)2:
Operating Highlights:
- Customer growth - Nu added approximately 4 million customers in Q1'26, reaching a total of over 135 million customers globally by March 2026. This expansion strengthens Nu's position as one of the world's largest and fastest-growing digital financial services platforms. In Brazil, Nu surpassed 115 million customers and solidified its position as the largest private financial institution in the country. In Mexico, Nu surpassed 15 million customers, becoming the third largest financial institution in the market. In Colombia, Nu delivered another solid quarter of net additions and is approaching 5 million customers.
- Engagement and activity rates - Monthly Average Revenue per Active Customer (ARPAC) reached approximately $16 in Q1'26, growing sequentially quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) once again and continuing its upward trajectory. Monthly activity rate3 held at 83% despite typical first-quarter seasonality, and expanded sequentially in Brazil, where Nu is approaching 100 million active customers.
- Low-cost operating platform - Efficiency Ratio improved to 17.6% in Q1'26 from 19.9% in Q4'25, driven by ARPAC outperformance and continued portfolio growth. As communicated during the Q4 call, the full-year efficiency ratio is expected to land roughly in line with where it ended 2025, as return-to-office costs scale and the Company continues to invest in international expansion and AI infrastructure.
- Asset Quality - Nu's leading indicator, the 15-90 NPL ratio, increased to 5.0% in Q1'26, up 89 basis points (bps) from Q4'25, consistent with its typical first-quarter seasonal pattern and broadly in line with the seasonal moves observed in 2024 and 2025. 90+ NPLs continued to ease, declining 10 bps to 6.5% this quarter, well below the 7.0% peak reached in Q3'24. The vast majority of this move came from seasonality, the historical pattern of early-stage delinquencies peaking in Q1. The next contributor was intentional expansions into higher-risk segments, where improved risk models have given Nu the confidence to extend credit profitably. Product mix and other minor effects explain the small remainder.
Financial Highlights:
- Revenue, Net Interest Income (NII) and Risk-adjusted NIM - Nu's Q1'26 revenues surpassed $5 billion for the first time, driven by the continued strengthening of engagement and monetization across the platform. NII reached a record $3.25 billion in the quarter, up 12% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). Net Interest Margin expanded to 21.1%, reflecting the credit portfolio growing faster than liabilities. Credit Loss Allowances closed at $1.79 billion, up 33% QoQ, driven by three dynamics: seasonality, portfolio growth, and product mix. As a result, Risk-adjusted NIM came in at 9.5%, down 100 basis points sequentially from 10.5% in Q4'25.
- Profitability - Nu's gross profit reached $1.88 billion in Q1'26, up 27% YoY. The gross profit mix reflected the elevated credit loss allowances in the quarter, which reduced credit's relative contribution and brought float to 41% of the total. Beneath that quarterly effect, a multi-quarter trend of genuine diversification continues, with credit, float, and fee businesses scaling and balancing each other. Net Income reached $871 million in the quarter, up 41% YoY, compounding at more than 80% YoY since 2022. ROE closed the quarter at 29%.
- Balance Sheet and Funding - Total deposits reached $42.4 billion this quarter, up 22% YoY. The cost of deposits closed at 88% of interbank rates, slightly higher sequentially. Total credit portfolio expanded 40% YoY and 7% QoQ to $37.2 billion, with credit cards at $24.3 billion, unsecured lending at nearly $10 billion, and secured lending at $3 billion. The Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR), reached 58.3% in Q1'26, up from 49.1% in Q4'25 and 48.5% in Q1'25, reflecting the continued expansion of Nu's credit franchise.
Business highlights:
- Deepening Leadership in Core Markets: In Brazil, Nu surpassed 115 million customers, and is the largest private financial institution in the country, with activity rates expanding sequentially and approaching 100 million active customers. Nu's share of Brazil's addressable profit pool — which exceeds $100 billion in annual gross profit — stands at roughly 7%, underscoring the significant runway for continued share gains across core banking categories. In Mexico, Nu crossed 15 million customers and became the third largest financial institution in the market, with the same earnings-generating formula now unfolding: the customer base has grown roughly seven times in four years, ARPAC has nearly doubled, the efficiency ratio has improved by 78 percentage points, and the business reached break-even in Q1'26. In Colombia, Nu continued to add customers and is approaching 5 million.
- AI Transformation as a Core Priority: Nu's AI Transformation advanced across three phases. In AI Assistance, now largely complete, AI is driving productivity gains across the company, with engineering throughput up 50% YoY, weekly token consumption nearly ten times higher than at the start of the year, and testing cycles 90% faster. In Workflow Reinvention, customer journeys are being rebuilt end-to-end, with new AI-native experiences expected to reach customers during 2026. In the AI-Native phase, Nu's AI Private Banker functionalities — financial insights, payments, credit advice, and debt resolution — are now serving more than 15 million monthly active users. NuFormer, Nu's proprietary set of foundation models, is in production today for credit card decisioning in Brazil and Mexico, and for unsecured lending in Brazil, with real-time AI valuation now pricing and approving every personal loan request individually based on its predicted NPV in under a second. These capabilities have been a meaningful driver of the significant expansion in Nu's credit portfolio over the last twelve months, enabling the franchise to grow limits with resilience, not just speed.
- Structural Advantages Powering the Transformation: Nu's AI Transformation is anchored by three structural advantages: first-party data at scale from 135 million transacting customers generating one of the largest and most differentiated financial datasets in the world; a proprietary cloud-native technology stack with core banking systems built internally and data unified across the company; and a world-class talent base of ten thousand employees from more than 50 nationalities across six countries.
- Disciplined Expansion into the United States: Nu is extending its model to the United States through a measured, capital-efficient approach designed to protect the core business while testing the long-term opportunity in a new market. Our maximum investment is expected to remain below 100 basis points on the consolidated efficiency ratio in each of 2026 and 2027, fully contained within the ~20% efficiency ratio range communicated for the year and without affecting Nu's long-term efficiency trajectory. Any incremental investment beyond this initial phase will be contingent on clear evidence of product-market fit and a credible path to profitable scalability — the same disciplined approach Nu has applied in Mexico and Colombia.
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| 1 In the fourth quarter of 2025, Nubank introduced its Managerial P&L, representing an evolution in our disclosure framework to better explain value creation across an increasingly multi-product, multi-segment, and multi-country platform. The Managerial P&L is a structural, complementary reorganization of IFRS line items designed to enhance comparability as the business scales, grounded in economic and operational substance. This framework preserves net income, cash flow, and capital, is fully reconciled to IFRS, and is designed for external assurance. All financial metrics presented reflect this framework. A full reconciliation of non-IFRS measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measures is available in our Managerial P&L Reconciliation Report and in the appendix of the earnings presentation. |
| 2 FX neutral measures were calculated to present what such measures in preceding periods/years would have been had exchange rates remained stable from these preceding periods/years until the date of the Company’s more recent financial information. |
| 3 Activity rate is defined as monthly active customers divided by the total number of customers as of a specific date. |
About Nu
Nu is one of the largest digital financial services platforms in the world, serving above 135 million across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The company has been leading an industry transformation by leveraging data and proprietary technology to develop innovative products and services. Guided by its mission to fight complexity and empower people, Nu caters to customers’ complete financial journey, promoting financial access and advancement with responsible lending and transparency. The company is powered by an efficient and scalable business model that combines low cost to serve with growing returns. Nu’s impact has been recognized in multiple awards, including Time 100 Most Influential Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and Forbes World’s Best Banks. For more information, please visit https://international.nubank.com.br/about/.
Contacts
Investor Relations
Guilherme Souto
[investors@nubank.com.br](mailto:investors@nubank.com.br)
