Why Brazil’s Inter&Co bypasses ADRs to win over US retail investors

A quiet shift is underway in how global investors access Latin America's largest economy. For decades, international retail buyers looking to hold Brazilian equities had to rely on American Depositary Receipts (ADRs)—financial instruments that represent shares of foreign companies but often carry extra administrative fees, conversion headaches, and lower liquidity. Today, a new breed of Brazilian digital multinationals is bypassing this traditional structure entirely, listing their primary shares directly on U.S. exchanges.

At the forefront of this trend is Inter&Co, the Belo Horizonte-founded financial "super app" that operates as a digital bank, investment broker, and e-commerce marketplace. By utilizing a primary listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol INTR, the company allows U.S. retail investors to buy its Class A common shares directly. This direct-ownership model eliminates the intermediary layer typical of older Brazilian giants like state-run oil firm Petrobras or mining powerhouse Vale, which still rely on traditional ADR programs.

The strategy reflects a broader push by Latin American financial technology firms to tap into deeper pools of global capital while building brand recognition abroad. Inter&Co, which boasts tens of millions of active customers in Brazil, has actively expanded its footprint in the United States, even securing the naming rights to the Major League Soccer stadium in Orlando, Florida. The company's recent financial performance has kept it on the radar of international analysts, highlighted by a record second quarter in 2026 where net income rose 34% year-over-year to R$421.1 million ($81 million).

Navigating the Brazilian Fintech Boom

For foreign observers, the rise of direct-listed Brazilian stocks on U.S. exchanges represents a maturation of the country's financial technology sector. Under the regulatory oversight of the Central Bank of Brazil, which has spent the last decade fostering competition against a highly concentrated traditional banking cartel, digital banks have flourished. Inter&Co's direct Nasdaq listing is a structural advantage that makes it as easy to trade for a retail investor in Ohio as any domestic tech stock.

However, investing in Brazilian companies still carries distinct macroeconomic and political exposures. While direct listings avoid ADR-specific fees, they do not shield investors from the volatility of the Brazilian real or the shifting regulatory landscape in Brasília. As the country moves closer to its next major electoral cycle, foreign market participants are closely watching fiscal policies and inflation targets set by the government, which directly impact credit demand and default rates for digital lenders.

What it touches

The direct-listing structure of Inter&Co (INTR) makes it highly sensitive to capital flows targeting emerging-market fintech. Its performance directly influences investor sentiment toward other U.S.-listed Latin American digital banking peers, such as Nu Holdings (NU), while bypassing the local Brazilian exchange (B3) where traditional financial institutions like Itaú Unibanco (ITUB4) and Banco do Brasil (BBAS3) dominate trading volume.