Neobank customer accounts outside North America and Europe grew by 85 million in 2025, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The total number of neobank accounts in markets across Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East now exceeds 250 million, up from 90 million in 2022. The global expansion of neobanks is driven by a combination of regulatory liberalization, smartphone proliferation, and large populations of underbanked consumers seeking affordable, accessible banking alternatives.
Latin America Leads Neobank Growth
Latin America has emerged as the largest neobank market outside of China. Nubank’s 100 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia represent the largest customer base of any neobank globally. But Nubank is not alone. Ualá in Argentina has surpassed 8 million users. Nequi in Colombia has more than 18 million. Mercado Pago, the financial arm of e-commerce platform Mercado Libre, serves more than 50 million users across the region.
According to a McKinsey report on Latin American neobank growth, the region’s neobanks grew their combined customer base by 45% in 2025. The growth was concentrated in Brazil and Mexico, where high traditional banking fees, large unbanked populations, and widespread smartphone ownership create ideal conditions for digital banking adoption.
Fintech startups are expanding across emerging markets, and Latin American neobanks are among the most successful examples of that expansion.
Asia-Pacific: Regulatory-Driven Growth
In Asia-Pacific, neobank growth is closely tied to regulatory action. Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Korea have all issued digital banking licenses since 2020, creating structured pathways for new entrants. In South Korea, KakaoBank and Toss Bank collectively serve more than 30 million customers. In the Philippines, Tonik and Maya have attracted millions of users in a market where traditional bank penetration was below 35%.
According to Statista’s data on Asia-Pacific digital banking, the region’s neobank user base grew from 80 million in 2022 to 140 million in 2025. India’s neobank sector is still relatively small by customer count, but growing rapidly. Jupiter, Fi, and Niyo collectively serve more than 15 million users, and India’s massive smartphone user base of more than 800 million people represents enormous growth potential.
Fintech ecosystems are expanding across 200+ global markets, and Asia-Pacific’s diverse regulatory environments are producing a wide variety of neobank models, from super-app-integrated banks in Indonesia to standalone mobile banks in the Philippines.
Africa and the Middle East
Neobank growth in Africa takes a different form than in other regions. Mobile money platforms like M-Pesa, MTN MoMo, and Airtel Money function as de facto neobanks for hundreds of millions of users, offering payments, savings, and lending services through mobile phones. According to GSMA data, Sub-Saharan Africa had more than 800 million registered mobile money accounts in 2025.
In the Middle East, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are driving neobank growth through regulatory innovation. The Abu Dhabi Global Market and the Saudi Central Bank have both created frameworks for digital banking licenses. Mashreq Neo, Liv by Emirates NBD, and Saudi Arabia’s STC Pay are among the leading digital banking platforms in the region.
Fintech is expanding financial access for over 1.7 billion unbanked adults, and neobanks and mobile money platforms in Africa and the Middle East are at the front line of that expansion. According to a 2025 Accenture analysis of African digital banking, the number of active digital banking users in Africa grew by 35% in 2025.
Challenges to Global Expansion
Neobanks expanding internationally face several challenges. Regulatory requirements differ significantly between countries, requiring separate licensing processes and compliance infrastructure for each market. Currency management, anti-money laundering regulations, and data localization rules add further complexity.
According to a BCG study on neobank international expansion, the average cost of entering a new market for a neobank is $15 million to $30 million, including licensing, compliance setup, and initial marketing. This cost barrier means that only well-funded neobanks can pursue multi-market strategies. Over 300 fintech unicorns have achieved billion-dollar valuations, and the most globally ambitious neobanks, including Revolut, Nubank, and N26, are among that group.
S&P Global’s data showing 85 million new neobank accounts outside developed Western markets in a single year confirms that digital banking is a global phenomenon, not a developed-market trend. The next 250 million accounts are likely to come predominantly from India, Southeast Asia, and Africa, where the gap between banking demand and traditional banking supply is widest.
Market Consolidation and Competitive Dynamics
The fintech sector has entered a consolidation phase after years of rapid expansion. Venture funding for fintech startups declined 40 percent between 2022 and 2024, according to CB Insights’ 2024 fintech report, pushing companies toward profitability and strategic acquisitions. Larger players have used this environment to acquire specialized capabilities at lower valuations. Embedded finance has emerged as the primary growth vector, with non-financial companies integrating lending, insurance, and payment products directly into their platforms. Banks have responded by launching their own digital subsidiaries and partnering with infrastructure providers rather than competing with fintechs directly.
Strategic Implications for the Industry
The data points covered in this analysis reflect structural shifts that will persist regardless of short-term market fluctuations. Technology-driven platforms are fundamentally restructuring the cost base, speed, and accessibility of financial products and services. This is not a cyclical trend but a permanent change in how the industry operates.
For established institutions, the strategic question is how aggressively to pursue transformation. Incremental improvements to existing systems produce marginal gains at best. The institutions seeing the strongest results are those that have committed to comprehensive modernisation of their technology stacks, operating models, and talent strategies.
For investors evaluating opportunities in this space, the valuation gap between digitally mature and digitally lagging institutions will continue to widen. Markets increasingly reward operational efficiency, scalability, and the ability to adapt quickly to changing customer expectations and regulatory requirements. The firms that lead on these dimensions will attract capital at lower costs and deploy it more effectively, creating a compounding advantage that becomes increasingly difficult for competitors to overcome.
The competitive dynamics are shifting in favour of organisations that combine technological capability with deep market understanding. Pure technology plays without industry expertise struggle to navigate regulatory complexity and customer trust requirements. Legacy institutions without modern technology struggle to match the speed and cost efficiency of digital-first competitors. The winners will be those that bring both elements together effectively.
