To date, the company operates in Mexico under the name Sofipo, a financial institution focused on low-income individuals underserved by traditional banking, as well as microenterprises.

Mexico's financial regulator, the National Bank of Mexico (CNBV), on Tuesday granted the local unit of Brazil's Nubank authorization to obtain a license to operate as a bank in the country, a government source said.

Nubank, one of Latin America's largest companies by market value, announced in late 2023 that its Mexican subsidiary, Nu Mexico, had applied for the license.

"It has already been approved," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. She added that operational approval from the CNBV is still needed "to determine whether the operations comply in practice with a bank's operational standards."

The CNBV approval was first reported by the newspaper El Financiero .

The source added that operational approval can take up to 180 days, but can be completed much sooner.

The CNBV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nu Mexico said it was "awaiting formal notification of the decision" and would communicate the official resolution soon, in response to a request for comment from Reuters .

To date, Nubank operates in Mexico under the umbrella of a Sofipo (Sofipo), a financial institution focused on low-income individuals underserved by traditional banking, as well as microenterprises.

Nubank is one of the most popular neobanks in Mexico and reached 10 million customers in January, just five years after the financial platform launched in that market.

Late last year, one of its main competitors, Mercado Pago, applied for a license to operate as a commercial banking institution. And London-based Revolut announced in spring 2024 that it had obtained a banking license in Mexico, the second-largest economy in Latin America after Brazil.