How Itaú Unibanco Makes Money

Itaú is a universal bank that makes money in three ways. First, net interest income: it lends to individuals (credit cards, payroll loans, mortgages, vehicle finance) and companies, funded largely by deposits, and earns the spread between lending and funding rates. Second, fees and services: card issuing through Itaucard, merchant acquiring through Rede, account and payment services, asset management, private banking and investment banking at Itaú BBA. Third, insurance, pensions and premium bonds sold to its customer base. In FY2025 management reporting, Retail generated ~$20.2 billion (R$112.2 billion) of operating revenue, Wholesale ~$11.3 billion (R$62.6 billion) and Market and Corporation activities ~$1.73 billion (R$9.6 billion).

Under CEO Milton Maluhy Filho, Itaú's strategy centers on client centricity, efficiency and technology. It is consolidating customer apps into one platform, modernizing legacy systems and moving workloads to the cloud, expanding the use of data and AI in credit and service, growing wealth management and investment distribution, and allocating capital selectively across its Latin American subsidiaries, while returning excess capital through dividends and buybacks.