David Vélez

Um, I, I think it's something like 95% of the transactions.

uh the financial tracks transactions in the world are still done through quote-unquote legacy banking systems right so meaning sending wires uh depositing a check atm whatever and um to me that makes almost no sense considering the the world that we live in the cell phone point that you touched on was a huge uh thing brazil cell phone the cell phone penetration in brazil it was exceptionally high which is one of the things that David Velez noticed and allowed for a branchless banking system, because obviously if people don't have cell phones, then you need a branch or something else to transact on.

And so that sort of provided that huge catapult for them to really grow in an exceptional way.

The same has happened, by the way, in China.

Welcome to Brain Food.

My guest today is David Velez, who is the founder and global CEO of the one and only Nubank.

Nubank has, true to its name, developed a blueprint for what a bank can be in the 21st century.

It's mobile first, wildly efficient compared with its peers, and staggeringly large.

Newbank's efficiency ratio is like LeBron's numbers, all time greatest.

The overhead required to generate revenue was 19.5% versus 47 at JP Morgan.

That's the kind of number that other CEOs read and weep.

And of course, they do that by looking at customers that other big banks ignored, first in Brazil, then Mexico, Colombia, and now in the United States, and with New Global, possibly around the world.

Feature, Coming to America.

After facing down regulators, oligopolies, and corruption in Latin America, new bank founder David Velez faces his biggest challenge yet, the United States.

By Gabby Marquez.

October, 2026.

Issue 8, narrated by Scott Brick.

David Velez materializes on the eighth floor of New Bank's headquarters in Sao Paulo at 9.53 a.m. and greets me in Portuguese with a thick Spanish accent.

I'll be with you in seven minutes, he says.

I sat up in a conference room.

The greatest advance in consulting since the quadrant, Economist.

Coming to America, NewBank's David Velez, colossus good interview with the head of the Brazilian bank rumored to be buying Monzo.

NewBank says it is not pursuing Monzo takeover after shares plunge.

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2026.

You don't have to kind of remember to turn anything off after six months because a promotional offer ends.

And when you see David Velez talking about what matters most to him, he talks a lot about trying to remove complexity.

So that's really what you see playing out here.

They've tried to kind of keep a relatively focused first proposition and reduce the complexity and the barriers to entry so that if consumers do hear about it, it's easy for them to sign up, give it a go, and there's nothing to lose.

Ah, bueno, ese, o sea, relativo, pues puede que me vayan a mirar feo, pero, eh, Lulo no ha sido, no ha tenido la expectativa.

Ese es-- todos han querido entrar al negocio digital, digamos que nadie como David Vélez.

Entonces, que Yupi, que Yupi la absorbieron para meterla en Nutresa.

Entonces, eh, va, va viendo uno los reacomodamientos.

The announcement was made in Barranquilla at a press conference held by the president, flanked by some of the richest men in Colombia, whose combined wealth constitutes 10% of the country's gross domestic product.

The group included Jaime Gilinski, David Vélez, and Luis Carlos Sarmiento.

The press conference was principally called to announce a so-called Marshall Plan, a partnership between public and private funding to provide investment and reconstruction in the Department of Chocó following last month's earthquake.

Those were your top stories for this week.