Fintech N26 secures Brazilian banking licence

German digital bank N26 has secured a Sociedade de Crédito Direto (SCD) licence from the Brazilan Central Bank, which will allow the company to "carry out credit operations" including third-party credit analysis and the ability to issue electronic currency.

N26 first announced its plan to carry out business in Brazil back in 2019. Eduardo Del Guerra Prota, former Santander banker, who has been at N26 since February 2019 led the bank's Brazilian team.

However, N26 will compete with Nubank, the largest Brazilian challenger bank, with over 25m customers in Brazil and Mexico alone while the German bank has about 5m customers across 25 different markets.

Recently, N26 is in trouble with employees who started a works council in August 2020 after they alleged a breakdown in the relationship between staff and the leadership team. Despite this, N26 had one of the largest funding rounds of last year, raising $100m as part of its $470m Series D funding round.