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Behind the Bank

Issues · Issue #7 · · ~3-minute read

22 million logins a day, and a record quarter

How Inter&Co turns Pix habits into profit, HDFC's deposit race, M-PESA's merchant boom, and making daily logins the metric that matters.

1. The Big One: Inter&Co, Brazil's other digital bank

The story. Inter started as a mid-sized Brazilian lender and rebuilt itself as a digital bank and super-app. It pairs free Pix payments with cards, payroll loans and investments. In 2Q26 it said its "Rule of 50" (revenue growth plus ROE) was "already a reality", with revenue growth of 32% and ROE of 16.3% (Inter&Co, 2Q26).

The numbers (2Q26) (same source):

  • Record net income R$421M, up 34% year on year; ROE 16.3%.
  • Net revenue up about 32%; efficiency ratio a record low 42% (Nasdaq release).
  • 45.3M total clients; 26.4M active (58.3% activation).
  • About 22M logins and 32M transactions a day; Pix market share of about 9%.

Our read (opinion). Inter is the bank Nubank's headlines hide. It is profitable, growing and running at 42 cents of cost per revenue dollar. Credit is the risk: its own release flags rising bad loans in private payroll loans and credit cards. Expect those to decide the next four quarters.

2. The Scout

Three bets banks and challengers are making right now, and what they tell you.

  • HDFC Bank chases deposits (APAC). Average deposits grew 16.8% in Q2 FY27 (to Sept 2026), against 14.1% for advances under management (HDFC Bank). What it tells you: deposits are growing faster than loans at India's largest private-sector bank, three years after HDFC Ltd merged into it on 1 July 2023 (HDFC Bank).
  • M-PESA signs up merchants (Africa). Its merchant base grew 71% to 3.1M in FY26, led by the Pochi small-trader till (Safaricom). What it tells you: the next growth comes from informal traders, not consumers.
  • N26 turns a profit (Europe). It booked a first full-year net profit of €1.6M in 2025, on €501.6M of revenue (N26). What it tells you: the last of Europe's big neobanks to post a full-year profit has now done so. Our read: profitability is becoming table stakes.

3. The Playbook: Make daily logins the metric that matters

What it is. Manage the business on how often customers use you, not on how many signed up. Frequent use is what lets you sell credit and investments. Inter's daily logins rose to about 22M from about 18M a year earlier (Inter&Co).

How it runs. Win the daily payment. Report active users and logins at board level. Tie product launches to frequency, not just to sign-ups.

Your move. Add "daily active users ÷ total customers" to your monthly pack.

APAC angle. Paytm had 8 crore (80M) monthly transacting users in Q1 FY27 (Paytm).

Not investment advice.

Sources