By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s largest e-commerce platforms are increasingly reshaping the country’s financial landscape. Data released by the Central Bank of Brazil show Mercado Pago, Mercado Livre’s financial arm, overtook Santander to become the country’s sixth-largest financial institution by customer base in the second quarter of 2026. At the same time, Maree IP, a financial institution linked to Shopee, entered the top 20 for the first time.
The two developments highlight a broader shift in Brazil’s banking industry. Companies that built massive user bases through online marketplaces are increasingly leveraging that scale to expand into payments, digital banking, lending and other financial services, intensifying competition with both incumbent banks and fintechs.
The figures come from the Central Bank’s quarterly survey used to compile its consumer complaints ranking for banks, financial institutions and payment companies. While the report’s primary purpose is to measure complaints, it also discloses each institution’s customer base, offering one of the clearest snapshots of how Brazil’s largest financial platforms are evolving.
Mercado Pago expanded its customer base by 4.74% during the quarter, adding 3.38 million customers to reach 74.66 million. That allowed it to surpass Santander, whose customer base grew 0.95% to 72.31 million.
In the first quarter, Santander still ranked sixth with 71.63 million customers, narrowly ahead of Mercado Pago’s 71.28 million. Three months later, Mercado Pago had opened a lead of more than 2.3 million customer records.
The figures underscore how Mercado Pago has evolved well beyond its original role as Mercado Livre’s payment solution. The company now offers digital accounts, credit cards, consumer and merchant lending, investments, insurance and a broad range of financial products integrated into Mercado Livre’s ecosystem.
Maree IP’s arrival among Brazil’s 20 largest financial institutions reinforces the same trend. Linked to Shopee, the company ended the quarter with 12.76 million customers, ranking 17th nationwide.
Maree did not appear among the top 20 institutions in the previous quarter. Its debut highlights Shopee’s growing strategy of converting marketplace buyers and sellers into users of payment services and other financial products.
Together, Mercado Pago and Maree illustrate how Mercado Livre and Shopee are no longer competing solely in e-commerce. Both companies are increasingly seeking to capture the financial flows generated within their platforms by offering payments, digital wallets, merchant services, credit and other banking products.
That model provides a significant competitive advantage. Because marketplaces already manage millions of commercial transactions, they have access to valuable consumer and merchant data that can support underwriting, customer acquisition and cross-selling of financial products.
Nubank remains second
Caixa Econômica Federal remained Brazil’s largest financial institution by customer base, with 160.22 million customers, up from 158.19 million in the first quarter. Nu Pagamentos, Nubank’s regulated financial institution, remained second with 117.26 million customers after adding 2.52 million during the quarter.
Nubank also recently agreed to acquire Banco Porto Real de Investimentos, a transaction that will allow the group to incorporate a banking license, subject to regulatory approval by the Central Bank.
The acquisition reflects Nubank’s continued evolution from a digital challenger focused primarily on credit cards and digital accounts into a broader financial group offering an increasingly comprehensive suite of banking products.
Bradesco, Itaú and Banco do Brasil completed the top five. Bradesco’s customer base remained essentially stable at 110.41 million, while Banco do Brasil expanded 1.31% to 84.09 million.
Itaú was the only major institution to report a meaningful decline, with its customer base falling 2.79% to 98.05 million, a reduction of 2.81 million customer records during the quarter.
The decline does not necessarily indicate a comparable loss of active customers. The Central Bank’s methodology combines information from Brazil’s Customer Registry (CCS) and Credit Information System (SCR), meaning customer totals may also reflect account closures, registry updates, corporate reorganizations and changes in financial conglomerate structures.
Among comparable institutions, Mercado Pago recorded the largest increase in absolute customer numbers, followed by Nubank, CloudWalk and Caixa.
Celcoin posted the fastest percentage growth, expanding 14.88% to 12.56 million customers. CloudWalk, owner of the InfinitePay brand, grew 12.86%, adding 2.33 million customers to reach 20.49 million.
PicPay, Inter, C6 Bank, Stone, 99Pay and RecargaPay also expanded during the quarter. Meanwhile, 99Pay overtook the combined BTG Pactual/Banco Pan group to become Brazil’s 12th-largest financial institution by customer base.
Scale does not equal profitability
The rapid expansion of digital financial platforms does not diminish the financial strength of Brazil’s traditional banks.
Itaú, Bradesco, Santander, Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal remain full-service banking groups with substantial operations in corporate and retail lending, investment banking, wealth management, insurance, payments and capital markets. They also rank among the country’s most profitable financial institutions.
With the exception of Itaú, which reported a decline in customer records during the quarter, the country’s largest incumbent banks either expanded or maintained broadly stable customer bases. Caixa, Banco do Brasil and Santander all posted gains, while Bradesco remained essentially flat.
Customer numbers alone do not measure profitability or franchise value. They indicate distribution reach and market penetration but provide little insight into deposits, lending volumes, fee generation, assets under management or earnings.
Traditional universal banks often generate significantly higher revenue and profit per customer because they maintain broader and deeper relationships across multiple financial products.
By contrast, digital platforms and marketplaces typically excel at customer acquisition, benefiting from lower distribution costs and pre-existing user ecosystems. Their long-term challenge is converting scale into recurring financial activity and sustainable profitability.
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