Latin America’s neobank wave is completing its regulatory conversion into full banking status, and Nu Holdings just supplied the clearest example. On July 9, 2026, Mexico’s Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores granted Nubank Mexico an Operations Authorization to begin functioning as a multiple bank (banca multiple), the final step in a transformation that started with a banking license approval in April 2025. Nubank Mexico must now begin banking operations within 30 days.
The authorization is significant because of the path it closes out. Nu Mexico began as a SOFIPO, a limited-purpose popular financial society, and is now the first entity to convert that structure into a full bank charter. That upgrade lets it widen its credit, payments, and savings products beyond what a SOFIPO license permits, inside a market where Nu already serves a large customer base built through its Mexican credit card and savings accounts. “This authorization represents the final and conclusive step of the transformation process,” said Guilherme Souto, Nu Holdings’ investor relations officer, adding that it reinforces “the long-term vision and commitment of the Company to Mexico.”
The original insight: this is the same charter logic now playing out across fintech in the US and Europe, applied to a market where the regulatory ladder runs through a SOFIPO first. Neobanks that scale on a limited license eventually hit a product ceiling, deposit-taking, full lending, savings products at bank-grade limits, that only a full charter removes. Klarna’s pursuit of a US bank charter shows the same pattern in a different jurisdiction: the charter is no longer a defensive move, it is the default endpoint for any neobank serious about product breadth.
Source: Nu Holdings SEC filing
