Brazil’s biggest lender Itau Unibanco Holding SA managed to attract 10 million clients to its digital bank iti, tripling its customer base since the start of the year, a bank executive said on Wednesday.
Itau’s push for more customers comes at a time when fintechs such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc-backed Nubank and General Atlantic’s Neon have gained millions of customers from traditional banks and those without bank accounts.
Joao Araujo, director of iti director, said it had targeted customers in regions where Itau has fewer customers, such as the states of northern and northeastern Brazil.
The digital bank, which had about 3 million users by early 2021, focuses on low-income strata shunned by traditional lenders in Brazil, South America’s most populous nation.
Around 80% of iti’s customers are new to Itau and more than half of them are under 30 years old.
iti launched a physical free-of-charge credit card in March, which is offered by all neobanks in Brazil.