Nubank’s third quarter of 2025 marks another decisive step in its transformation from a disruptive fintech into one of the world’s most efficient and scalable digital banking platforms. With its customer base surpassing 127 million users and growth accelerating in all core regions, the company has firmly established itself as Brazil’s financial default. Engagement remains exceptionally high, monetization is improving, and the expansion in Mexico and Colombia is gaining the kind of traction that signals long-term structural growth. Revenue reached a record $4.2 billion, net income surged to $783 million, and ROE climbed to an impressive 31%, underscoring a business model operating at remarkable scale and profitability.
What makes this quarter particularly significant is the deepening of Nubank’s technology advantage. Operating costs per customer remain under $1, while ARPAC has risen above $13, highlighting a monetization engine that becomes stronger as the platform grows. The company is now accelerating its shift toward an AI-first architecture designed to automate processes, enhance risk evaluation, and personalize financial services at a scale unmatched by traditional banks. Q3 2025 confirms that Nubank is not only dominating Latin America’s fintech landscape but is also emerging as a global blueprint for the next generation of digital banking.
How was the last quarter?
The third quarter of 2025 was clearly the best everfor $NU. Revenues grew 39% year-on-year to $4.2 billion (FX-neutral), reflecting rapid growth in the client base, higher user activity and acceleration in monetisation. Key metrics show that Nu is able to combine expansion with increasing efficiency - the efficiency ratio fell to 27.7%, an exceptionally low level in the context of the fintech sector and traditional banking. Net profit reached $783m, up 39% FX-neutral year-on-year, and return on equity rose to 31%, a level that ranks among the absolute top in the banking sector.
The credit business, which is an increasingly important pillar of growth alongside payments, also showed significant improvement, with a loan portfolio of $30.4 billion, up 42% year-on-year (FX-neutral), and presenting a diversified structure: credit cards grew at a double-digit rate and secured loans added a strong 133%, while unsecured loans grew 63%. At the same time, portfolio quality remains under control, with the 15-90 day NPL in Brazil at 4.2% and the 90+ NPL only slightly up at 6.8%, in line with expected seasonality and market dynamics.
From a funding perspective, Nu has once again confirmed that it can attract cheap deposits in large volumes. Deposits grew 34% year-on-year (FXN) to $38.8 billion and funding costs represent only 89% of the interbank rate. The loan-to-deposit ratio is 46%, a comfortable level allowing for further credit expansion without pressure on more expensive funding sources. Interest-Earning Portfolio also grew significantly, increasing 54% to $17.7 billion, demonstrating that Nu is increasingly moving towards a universal digital bank model with a strong yield profile.
Client activity remains extremely robust: 106 million active users at 83% activity shows extremely high user retention. Payment volumes reached $36.5 billion, up 20% from a year ago. ARPAC has risen to $13.4 from $11 a year ago, while cost of service is holding at $0.9 - this combination represents one of Nu's largest competitive differentiators globally. As a result, the firm is able to monetize users many times more efficiently than most global fintechs, while maintaining a lower cost burden than traditional banks.
Overall, Nu demonstrated a unique combination in Q3 2025: the fastest growth in the region's client base, record user monetization, strong portfolio quality, and sharp profitability growth. This quarter confirms that Nu's model is not only scalable but also highly profitable.
CEO commentary
David Vélez highlighted that Q3 2025 is a symbol for Nu that the company can "grow and mature". According to him, Nu is entering a new phase where it is no longer just a hyper-expansive fintech startup, but a technology-driven financial institution that combines massive customer growth with increasing profitability. Vélez underlined that the company is working on an AI-first transformation, aiming to build an interface where banking interactions become more automated and personalised the more users use the platform. AI is set to fundamentally impact risk-modeling, customer support, product recommendation and operations.
The CEO also highlighted that the growth in Mexico and Colombia confirms the scalability of the model outside Brazil. Mexico already serves 14% of the adult population and Colombia is approaching 4 million clients. According to Vélez, it is the ability to replicate geographically that is one of the company's greatest assets. Thus, he says the results show not just short-term growth, but a structural shift by the company towards being Latin America's dominant digital banking player.
Outlook
Nu enters the next quarters with extremely strong momentum and some clear priorities. The firm expects continued client growth across all markets, with Brazil already focused more on monetisation than on expanding the customer base itself. Management expects ARPAC to continue to grow through cross-selling, expansion of credit products and investment services. From a portfolio perspective, the goal is to maintain high growth while managing risk, particularly in the phase of expanding unsecured lending outside of Brazil.
Nu is also investing heavily in architecture based on foundation models. This transformation is expected to lead to further reductions in customer servicing costs, faster onboarding processes and more efficient risk-scoring. The firm also plans to leverage its strong deposit base to further grow its loan book, with an LDR of 46% giving significant room for expansion. The trend that analysts expect is steady profitability growth and further improvement in ROE, which should continue to remain well above the sector average.
Long-term results
Nu's long-term development confirms that the company is one of the fastest growing financial institutions in the world. Revenues for 2024 are up 45% to $11.1 billion, following previous growth of 70% and nearly 200% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. This trajectory points to exponential expansion not only in absolute client numbers but also in monetization, driven by loan products, higher transaction activity and growth in investment services.
Gross profit for 2024 is up 52%, operating profit is up 82% to $2.8 billion, and net income has nearly doubled to $1.97 billion. Particularly significant is the turnaround from 2022, when the company was still in the red - since then, Nu has transformed into a steadily profitable company with soaring earnings per share. EPS for 2024 was $0.41, nearly double 2023's, while EBITDA was $2.87 billion. The number of shares outstanding is growing only marginally, supporting earnings per share growth.
Over the long term, this is a story of a fintech that has not only grown rapidly, but more importantly, has successfully transitioned into a highly scalable and profitable bank whose key metrics - revenue, profitability, margins and return on capital - are growing in parallel.
News
The most notable news of the quarter is the progressive transformation of Nu into an AI-first banking platform, which is set to fundamentally change the way the company delivers services and manages its own operations. In particular, the integration of foundation models relates to risk management, predictive analysis of client behaviour and customer care automation. The firm is also strengthening its presence in Mexico and Colombia, where it sees huge scope for growth in financial services penetration.
Nu is also expanding its investment products, insurance, payment services and secured lending, which are gaining traction quickly due to its easy onboarding process. The rapid growth in deposits is also significant news, which increases funding stability and reduces reliance on capital markets. Short-term trends thus point to a technologically and commercially mature company that is maintaining a high growth rate across regions.
Shareholding structure
Nu has a strongly institutional shareholder structure: over 80% of the shares are held by large global investors and the float is 84% owned by institutions. The largest shareholders include BlackRock with 7.64%, Baillie Gifford with 6.64%, JPMorgan with nearly 5% and Capital Research with 4.9%. Insiders own only 4.7% of the shares, which is typical for publicly traded financial platforms after an expansion phase. The nearly 1,200 institutions holding shares is indicative of the high level of long-term capital interest in the company's growth story.
Analyst expectations
Analysts view the Q3 2025 results as further confirmation that Nu can grow over the long term at a pace unmatched in the global banking industry. Continued growth in the client base, further increases in ARPAC and expansion of the loan book are expected while maintaining stable asset quality. AI-first transformation is also a key focus for analysts, which can further reduce customer servicing costs and strengthen risk management.
The consensus outlook expects Nu to maintain an ROE of around 30% and continue to grow at double-digit rates on both revenue and earnings. Mexico is expected to gradually approach the penetration levels known from Brazil, while Colombia should be another growth driver in the coming years. If Nu delivers on its vision of an AI-first platform and maintains its current momentum, it could become one of the most profitable and scalable fintechs in the world.