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Banco Mercantil

“Can an 80-year-old regional Brazilian bank become the definitive digital financial ecosystem for the underserved 50+ / INSS beneficiary segment?”

Founded1943
HQBelo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
IndustryBank / National
The story

Banco Mercantil is an 80+ year old Brazilian bank that has repositioned itself as the leading financial ecosystem for the 50+ demographic, particularly INSS (social security) benefit recipients — where it is the fifth-largest payer in Brazil. Since 2021 it has invested heavily in digital transformation: joining Open Finance, acquiring credit fintech Gyra+ in 2022 for digital credit underwriting, and migrating to Google Cloud in 2023 to unlock AI and ML at scale. Its embedded-finance posture is unusual — as a chartered bank it operates most of its stack in-house, but is increasingly a consumer of cloud, open-banking, and insurance partnerships.

Last 12 months
2026-02
2026-01
Product timeline
1943
Banco Mercantil do Brasil founded in Belo Horizonte· banking
2021
Joined Brazil's Open Finance ecosystem as one of the participating institutions· banking
2022
Acquired fintech Gyra+, a digital credit analysis platform, to bolster Open Finance and credit intelligence capabilities· acquisition
2023
Announced migration of infrastructure and applications to Google Cloud to accelerate AI, ML, and data initiatives· pivot
2025
Reports ~85% of transactions occurring through app and WhatsApp channels, targeting 50+ demographic· banking
Acquisitions
Gyra+2022
Digital credit-analysis platform, one of the pioneers in Brazil's Open Finance ecosystem; acquired to enhance credit intelligence and digital lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Banco Mercantil
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
7 layers disclosed in Banco Mercantil’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Banco Mercantil (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Insurance
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Investing
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
8 more providers across 6 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.