Four years after its NASDAQ listing, Inter & Co. says the approach it adopted to prioritize disciplined, profitable growth over growth-at-all-costs is producing measurable results and shaping the company’s strategic priorities for the coming years, according to comments from Chief Financial Officer Santiago Stel.
The bank’s customer base has expanded from 18 million at the time of the 2022 listing to more than 44 million today, while 2025 produced record profits. Those outcomes, Stel said, informed the design of Inter’s new strategic framework, the "Rule of 50."
The Rule of 50 sets a combined target: annual revenue growth plus return on equity should total at least 50%. Management also disclosed a longer-term ROE objective of 28% to 30% to be reached by 2029. The company is deliberate about how the components of that 50% total are achieved - the framework does not mandate a fixed split between top-line growth and profitability.
Stel emphasized flexibility in execution: when macroeconomic pressures squeeze margins, Inter will prioritize profitability and asset quality over accelerating revenue growth. He tied that latitude to the composition of Inter’s credit book, which is roughly two-thirds secured and one-third unsecured, and anchored in private payroll and real estate lending.
Data points highlighted by Stel provide a sense of the strategy’s impact. Inter’s risk-adjusted net interest margin is reported to have widened from 3.9% to 5.9% even as the macro backdrop became tougher. At the same time, the company’s revenue mix benefits from a diversified fee base that includes investments, insurance and its shopping platform.
On competitive positioning, Stel singled out funding costs as a structural advantage that is hard to replicate. Management reports Inter’s cost of funding at 64% of Brazil’s benchmark CDI rate, with a loan-to-deposit ratio near 80%. Funding totaled 74 billion reais in the first quarter of 2026, up 25% year-over-year, supported by a deposit franchise that now handles 8% of all Pix transactions in Brazil and roughly 1 billion financial transactions per month.
"This level of cross-selling and principality, underpinned by a structurally lower cost of capital, is extremely difficult for monoline or pure-play digital accounts to replicate," Stel said, describing the combination of deposit scale and low funding cost as a key competitive moat.
Regulatory progress was another focal point. Inter recently opened a U.S. banking branch in Miami after receiving authorization from the Federal Reserve and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. Stel characterized this approval as among the most important regulatory milestones in the company’s history, calling the U.S. banking environment "notoriously rigorous" to navigate.
Management framed the Miami branch not as a bid to capture broad U.S. retail market share but as a focused capability to service Brazilian, Argentine and other international clients with remittances, cards, mortgages and brokerage access. The branch is also expected to lower Inter’s overall funding costs.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Stel pointed to the continued scaling of Inter’s private payroll lending product. That portfolio has reached 2.5 billion reais and serves roughly 600,000 clients within about a year of launch. Management has a goal of doubling market share in that segment by 2029.
Technology and cost efficiency also factor into the company’s plans. Inter’s AI platform, Seven, is cited as contributing to an efficiency ratio of 43% in the first quarter. Management reported gross revenue per client of 57 reais and a cost-to-serve of 13.1 reais, and said there remains runway to widen that gap without adding headcount.
Stel stated that the Rule of 50 now guides the business for the next three years. He acknowledged that reaching the ROE target will be challenging given current macro headwinds, but outlined the levers management can pull to improve returns: repricing the loan book, optimizing funding costs, and leaning into secured portfolios to drive risk-adjusted returns.
In closing remarks attributed to the company’s CEO, management reiterated that the combination of these actions forms the path to the ROE target, while also recognizing the difficulty of the task under the prevailing economic conditions.
Contextual note: The company’s performance metrics and plans referenced above reflect management statements and published results as described by the CFO.