Ir al contenido
Banco Inter review / Is Banco Inter safe? · Updated 11 March 2026

Is Banco Inter safe?
Yes — full Brazilian bank licence, direct FGC cover.

Banco Inter S.A. is a full Brazilian Banco Múltiplo, supervised by Banco Central do Brasil since 1994. Eligible deposits are covered directly by the Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (FGC) up to R$250,000 per CPF per institution. Inter & Co Inc., the Cayman parent, is listed on Nasdaq under ticker INTR. In January 2026, Inter received approval for a Miami international banking branch.

Licence
Banco Múltiplo
Full BCB charter (since 1994)
Deposit protection
R$250,000
FGC · per CPF · R$1M / 4-year cap
Customers
~33M
Brazil + Inter Global Account
Operating since
1994
Public on Nasdaq: INTR
Protección de depósitos LATAM-BR
Sistema
FGC
Tope
R$250,000
Regulador
Banco Central do Brasil (BCB)

El Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (FGC) protege hasta R$250.000 por depositante por institución, con un tope agregado de R$1M en todas las instituciones miembros de FGC en una ventana de 4 años. La cobertura aplica únicamente a entidades de crédito completas (bancos múltiplos, comerciais, etc.). Las fintechs brasileñas con licencia IPMP (Instituições de Pagamento) NO son miembros de FGC — los fondos de los clientes están segregados pero no asegurados.

Fuente primaria: https://www.fgc.org.br/

A full Brazilian bank — not a SOFOM, not a financeira

Banco Inter S.A. holds a Banco Múltiplo licence — the broadest of Brazil's chartered-bank classifications — supervised by Banco Central do Brasil. The licence has been in force since the institution was founded in 1994 (originally as Banco Intermedium, renamed to Banco Inter when the digital pivot launched in 2015). That matters because Brazil's regulatory rulebook draws a hard line between three categories: full credit institutions (bancos múltiplos / comerciais), restricted credit institutions (Sociedades de Crédito, Financiamento e Investimento, or financeiras), and payment institutions (Instituições de Pagamento). Only the first category gets the cleanest protection chain — direct, full-bank cover under FGC, no product-eligibility small print at the licence level. Inter sits in that first category.

FGC cover, end-to-end

The Fundo Garantidor de Créditos covers eligible deposit products at FGC-member institutions up to R$250,000 per CPF per institution, with a R$1,000,000 aggregate ceiling across all FGC-member institutions over a rolling four-year window. Because Banco Inter is a chartered bank, the standard FGC product scope applies: depósito à vista (Conta Inter checking balance), depósito de poupança, CDBs, LCIs, LCAs, and the other Brazilian deposit instruments that FGC enumerates. What FGC does not cover at Inter is the same as at any other Brazilian bank: investing-product holdings (stocks, ETFs, Tesouro Direto), Inter Shop cashback balances that haven't been swept into a deposit, and any USD-denominated balances held outside the Brazilian banking entity. See the FGC explainer for the eligibility table.

The Miami branch (new, January 2026)

In January 2026, Inter received approval to open an international banking branch in Miami (reported by PYMNTS). The branch is the regulated home for the rebranded Inter Global Account and extends Inter's banking and credit products to US residents, non-US residents, and international businesses. The structural change to note: deposits at the Miami branch are not FGC-covered. International banking branches in the United States are supervised under US federal and state branch-supervision rules, and depositor protection (where it applies at all) operates under the US framework, not under Brazil's. Verify the licence type and any applicable cover via the relevant US regulator before sizing balances. The Brazilian deposit base under the Banco Múltiplo licence is unaffected by the Miami branch and remains under FGC.

Inter US / Inter Global Account: how the model evolved

Before the Miami branch, the Inter Global Account was the USD-account sidecar for Brazilian residents — a US-based account product wired into the Inter app to allow holding and spending USD without leaving the super-app. That earlier configuration relied on US partner-bank arrangements, which is a meaningfully different protection posture from a Brazilian-licensed deposit. With the Miami branch live, the picture simplifies: Inter itself is now the regulated US-side counterparty for the Global Account product, rather than a non-bank fronting a partner-bank account. The underlying depositor-protection question still has to be answered against US rules — but the chain is shorter and the counterparty is Inter's own branch.

What happens if Banco Inter fails

For Brazilian-deposit balances, the FGC claim path is the same as for any other FGC-member chartered bank: BACEN initiates resolution, FGC publishes a claim window, and depositors are paid out up to the R$250,000 per-CPF ceiling (subject to the R$1,000,000 four-year aggregate cap). Listed-company status adds a transparency layer: Inter & Co Inc. files quarterly with the SEC under ticker INTR, so the financial picture of the group is observable independently of regulator disclosure.

Verdict

Banco Inter is among the safer LATAM neobanks on the licence question — chartered-bank cover at full Banco Múltiplo level, in force for three decades, with direct FGC protection on the Brazilian deposit base. The structural caveats are the usual ones: the R$250,000 per-CPF ceiling and the R$1M four-year aggregate cap apply, investing products are not deposit-equivalent, and the new Miami branch's deposit protection has to be evaluated under US rules rather than Brazilian ones. For balances at or below the FGC ceiling held in Brazilian deposit products, the protection is equivalent to any other major Brazilian bank.

Advertencia de riesgo Divulgación del Banco Central do Brasil

Los fondos de los clientes de IPMP (Instituições de Pagamento) están segregados del balance propio de la institución pero NO están protegidos por el FGC. Verifique la clase de licencia con el Banco Central do Brasil antes de asumir cobertura de depósitos. Los productos cripto y de inversión están regulados por separado por la CVM.