Nu hits a milestone in quest for national banking charter

Congratulations to Nu (NYSE:NU), one of the world's largest digital financial services platforms, which announced today that it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for the formation of Nubank, N.A. – the de novo national bank Nu is preparing to open in the United States. We’re proud to have assisted Nu in reaching this important milestone, and it was a pleasure partnering with David Portilla and the team at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP on this important initiative.

With this step, Nu now enters the bank organization phase, which involves satisfying specific OCC conditions alongside pending required approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Nu submitted its application to the OCC on September 30, 2025. 

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in São Paulo, Nu has rapidly grown to become the world’s largest digital financial services platform, serving more than 127 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. 

From where we sit, the more welcoming regulatory landscape in the U.S. is clearly increasingly attractive to digital-first financial institutions like Nu - companies that have demonstrated product-market fit, achieved some scale, and are ready to explore international opportunities by evolving their regional platforms into global models, specifically by unlocking new opportunities within the U.S. If you’d like to chat charters and bank-building, get in touch with us at hello@klaros.com.