Brazilian Digital Bank C6 Opening First Physical Branches

Brazilian digital bank C6 is preparing to open its first brick-and-mortar operations in a bid to attract wealthier clients.

Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday (Oct. 19), C6’s Head of High Income Felipe Wey said the bank’s aim in the next few months is to have an office in each of Brazil’s capitals, along with other communities with a large pool of wealthy potential customers.

Wey did not mention an exact target, but said “dozens of offices are expected to be opened by the end of 2023.”

Learn more: JPMorgan Acquires 40 Pct Stake In Brazilian Digital Bank, C6 Bank

Last month, C6 debuted Carbon, a platform for its 20 million account holders who have a monthly income of more than 15,000 reais ($2,862.16) per month or upwards of 150,000 reais in investments.

Based in Sao Paolo, C6 was founded in 2019. Last year, JPMorgan purchased a 40% ownership stake in the bank, noting the country’s growing cohort of digital banking customers.

Read more: Bank Earnings Show Consumers’ Increased Use of Digital Channels

That growth is happening everywhere, per recent bank earnings, as PYMNTS reported earlier this month after Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan released their figures.

Citigroup showed that active mobile users grew 12% year-over-year to 17 million, as part of the overall 24 million digital users, an 8% increase year on year. Wells Fargo’s mobile active customers were at 28.3 million, up 5% from last year. JPMorgan’s active mobile customers jumped by 10% to 48.9 million; active digital customers were 7% higher year-on-year to a little under 62 million.

The numbers above line up with PYMNTS’ research into the Connected Economy, which show — across the globe — that digital banking holds appeal to consumers pretty much everywhere.

Our research found that 59% of consumers across 11 countries engage in digital banking activities. Singapore, Spain and the U.K. are standouts on the world stage, as detailed in “Benchmarking the World’s Digital Transformation, The ConnectedEconomy.”

As we noted in that report, the “availability of attractive mobile banking alternatives to brick-and-mortar banking — coupled with the widespread availability of smartphones — drives both adoption and usage.”