The momentum behind the loss-making bank’s IPO had become unstoppable by year-end, even as the range was eventually cut. It now faces intense scrutiny as a public firm.

When David Vélez, co-founder and chief executive of Nubank, Latin America’s best bank, spoke to Euromoney in January 2021 he acknowledged just how powerful an engine the pandemic had been for the growth in digital banking. The Covid-19 lockdown led to such accelerated growth in new customer segments that the bank is seeing numbers that would have taken months or years to achieve in normal times.

Nubank, Latin America’s best digital bank, is still very much in growth mode. Over the past year it has further built out from its credit card origins; current accounts have been added and the bank has acquired online investment platform Easynvest.

Brazil's Nubank is the world’s most valuable fintech in the digital banking space – now worth over $25 billion. In his first interview this year, chief executive and co-founder David Velez explains why he’s in no rush to IPO and why he would rather focus on the huge opportunity left in Brazil and elsewhere in the region.

Brazil’s fintechs and digital challenger banks are making more ground than traditional firms with the central bank’s new payments system.

Brazil’s largest fintech has 5% market share and now poses strategic challenge to market leaders.

Nubank’s acquisition of Easynvest this month is just one example of how the financial market in Brazil is developing at a dizzying speed.

Social distancing and government payments are turbo-charging digital bank’s growth.