Fintechs Gain Ground in Brazil’s Credit Market, but Still Just 4.5%
The five largest Brazilian fintechs—Nubank, Inter, C6, Mercado Pago and XP—granted R$354.6 billion in loans in the first quarter of 2026, capturing 4.5% of the country's total credit originations. That is roughly one percentage point higher than their share a year earlier, according to data compiled by O Globo. By contrast, the five biggest traditional banks still commanded 64.8% of the market, down from 74.3% a decade ago, showing that the shift is real but glacial.
The growth is increasingly coming from consigned loans—deductions directly from payroll or benefits—rather than the credit cards that first introduced many Brazilians to fintechs. A survey by PwC and the digital credit association ABCD found that among about 40 fintechs, personal loans reached R$10.4 billion in originations, followed by consigned loans for private workers at R$7.1 billion. Traditional credit card products trailed far behind.
The trend reveals an evolving relationship: clients who were originally drawn in by easy-access credit cards are now using the same platforms for larger, secured borrowing. For fintechs, this marks a maturation of their business models, yet the scale of the banking establishment remains formidable.
Consigned Loans, Sticky Customers and the Open Finance Bottleneck
Consigned Loans as the Breakout Product
Why has consigned credit become the main engine? For one, the government’s digital platform for private-sector consigned loans lets workers compare offers from multiple institutions, effectively breaking the distribution advantage of branch-heavy banks. “The private consigned loan created a kind of simplified Open Finance for a single product, and it seems to have worked well,” said Rafael Schiozer, finance professor at FGV, in the report. This mechanism allows fintechs to compete on price and service without needing a physical presence.
Why Big Banks Still Hold Their Ground
The “transatlantic” nature of Brazil’s credit market—huge, slow to turn and deeply rooted in relationships—makes rapid displacement unlikely. Marcelo Buosi, COO of QI Tech and vice-president of ABCD, noted that “for many borrowers, the real alternative is not traditional bank credit but overdrafts, revolving card lines or informal financing.” That means fintechs often serve niches banks have neglected, such as Bolsa Família recipients, among whom fintech credit cards are dominant. Yet for middle- and upper-income segments, inertia and trust in established banks remain stubborn barriers.
Open Finance’s Unfulfilled Promise
Open Finance, designed to enable data sharing and portability, has fallen short of expectations. Schiozer observed that “understanding why credit portability hasn't worked is a path to increasing competition in other modalities, beyond consigned.” The industry association Zetta, representing Nubank and Mercado Pago, is urging the central bank to strengthen Open Finance and salary portability, as well as to review the “Origination Cost Reimbursement” (RCO)—a fee paid by the receiving institution during a portability process. Without such changes, fintechs will struggle to convert their growing customer bases into meaningful credit market share beyond the consigned segment.
What Fintechs, Banks and Regulators Should Do Next
- For fintechs: Deepen exposure to consigned loans, especially for private-sector workers, where the regulatory framework gives you a direct line to customers. Build on secured products—collateral acceptance has leaped from 34% of fintechs in 2021 to 79% in 2025, reducing risk and funding costs.
- For incumbent banks: The low-income segment, where fintechs now dominate credit card issuance, could become a gateway to broader lending. Monitor whether consigned-loan growth erodes your high-margin payroll loan franchise and consider digital partnerships to retain clients who are comfortable with fintech interfaces.
- For regulators (Central Bank): Accelerate operational improvements to Open Finance and credit portability. A well-functioning portability system, mirroring the success of the consigned-loan platform, would directly increase competition. The RCO fee structure should be recalibrated to not penalize institutions that receive ported loans.
- For investors: The 1pp annual gain in market share, while slow, confirms that fintechs are not stuck. The key metric to watch is the mix of secured vs. unsecured loans—the rising guarantee ratio improves asset quality and could compress funding spreads over time, making fintechs more competitive against traditional bank balance sheets.
Risk & Opportunity Assessment
| Commercial Risk | Low | The overall credit pie is growing, and fintechs are serving underserved segments where big banks are absent. The commercial downside for fintechs is limited as long as they avoid subprime exposure in the low-income segment. |
| Competitive Risk | Medium | Big banks still control 64.8% of originations and enjoy deep customer trust. However, fintechs' rapid growth in consigned loans—a market where price comparison is transparent—could start to compress the banks' high-margin payroll lending if portability improves. |
| Regulatory Risk | Medium | The effectiveness of Open Finance and credit portability reforms will determine whether fintechs can compete beyond consigned loans. A slow or poorly designed regulatory framework would cap their addressable market, while aggressive pro-competition measures could accelerate share gains. |
| Reputation Risk | Low | Both fintechs and banks are largely unaffected by reputational events in this market-share story. Fintechs' shift to secured lending reduces the risk of a consumer credit crisis that could damage their reputation. |
| Technology Disruption | Low | Fintechs are the disruptors, but their technology edge in credit underwriting remains incremental, not transformative. The bigger disruption would be a fully functional portability ecosystem, which is more regulatory than technological. |
| Commercial Opportunity | High | With the big banks' share still at 64.8%, even a further 5pp shift over a few years would represent tens of billions of reais in new originations for fintechs—especially if regulatory changes make it easier for customers to switch. The PwC/ABCD data shows fintech loan volumes grew 330x in a decade, indicating the runway is far from exhausted. |
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