The number of active users of Brazilian digital banking platforms has remained flat in the past year – suggesting that the industry is close to saturation after years of rapid growth.
According to BofA Securities’ analyst Mario Pierry: “This [saturation] likely suggests that growth in active users should now come from market share gains, as we see little room for the total number of active accounts in the country to grow.”
Pierry also sees evidence of consolidation in digital banking, with the country’s top five neobanks representing more than 60% of all downloads – compared with 44% in June in 2022 – while smaller players joined forces or lost traction.
João Menin, chief executive of Banco Inter – one of the leading neobanks, alongside Nubank, PicPay, C6 and Mercado Pago – agrees that the challenge for his bank is moving beyond new customer acquisition. He expects a slowing in the number of new client accounts in the coming quarters – and is looking to increase Inter’s activation rates.
“Instead of hunting, let’s go farm,” Menin tells Euromoney. “And I would say that the unbanked and the underbanked addressable market in Brazil has been tapped out – we and other players have already conquered this market.
