Having established itself in the Brazilian payment terminal market, with a 22% market share in the acquiring segment, Stone has decided to explore other avenues for growth. And the chosen path involves becoming a bank.
In practice, what Stone wants is to prevent customers from making transactions using their card machine and then transferring the funds to another bank. The goal is to manage these funds by offering payment accounts, cards, and lines of credit to businesses.
“The opportunity for growth is closely related to the banking sector and financial services. With the wave of digital banks, life has become better for the consumer. But for the entrepreneur, there hasn't been the same progress. That's where we see this opportunity,” says Mateus Scherer, CEO of Stone, in an interview with NeoFeed .
The company has been developing financial services platforms over the past three years, with features such as payroll and investments. “Operating a point-of-sale terminal business is different from running a bank. Now we have a ready-made value proposition,” says Scherer.
The plan of the company founded by André Street is to establish itself as a kind of middle ground between the country's main banks, which are at the forefront of financial services, and digital banking platforms, which, according to Stone's CEO, still fail to serve small businesses.
In practice, Stone already operates today as a conventional bank, with all products available for legal entities. Of its just over four million clients, most already have some banking services, in addition to payment terminals.
The company is now awaiting final approval for its banking license so that it can formally become a bank. The formal request was made to the Central Bank (BC) in November 2025. The company requested the conversion of its registration from a finance company to that of a banking institution. The company also requested authorization to operate a securities and brokerage firm (DTVM).
“Today, we have a structure where the leading entity is a payment institution, with a credit, financing, and investment company right below it. This allows us to make loans, issue Certificates of Deposit (CDBs), and have payment accounts,” says CFO Diego Salgado.
Although there is no set deadline for approval by the Central Bank, there is an expectation that authorization will be granted in the coming months. Stone's registration as a financial institution took 13 months. If that timeframe is the same, the banking license could be issued by December of this year.
The request was made a few weeks before a change in the rule established by the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council (CMN), which, in December of last year, published a resolution prohibiting institutions without banking licenses from using the terms "banco" or "bank". Stone does not fall under this new rule.
With this move, Stone follows the same path as PagBank , formerly known as PagSeguro, which obtained its banking license in 2019 through the acquisition of Banco Brasileiro de Negócios (BBN). That company also originated in the payment terminal market.
Even while competing with the country's leading financial institutions for corporate clients, Stone will follow a similar path to digital banks and will not have physical branches. The strategy is to leverage the company's four thousand sales representatives in Brazil to act as a kind of "manager" for these clients.
This transformation at Stone was driven by customer feedback on their banks' services. Research conducted by the company with a thousand entrepreneurs showed that only 28% feel valued by their financial institution.
“Most micro-entrepreneurs don’t feel represented by their bank and don’t understand that they have good customer service. Stone is recognized for its payment terminal, not for its banking services. The client doesn’t need to use us as a one-time transaction, but rather in the day-to-day operations of their business,” says Sandro Bassili, COO of Stone.
A key factor in the consolidation was the progress of the company's divestment process itself, starting with the sale of companies that had less relevance to Stone's core business .
In July of last year, the company sold Linx to Totvs for R$ 3.05 billion , which represented a 54% discount on the acquisition price of R$ 6.7 billion in 2020.
“We started to feel more comfortable with this change last year and this year. It also culminates with the sale of Linx itself. We are significantly simplifying the company to focus 100% on the strategy of positioning ourselves as a bank,” says Scherer.
The shift in focus opens up opportunities for Stone to enter an entrepreneurial market far beyond small retailers. With this move, the company can expand its reach to service providers, such as law firms.
"If we think about a small real estate developer in the interior, an office, and segments that are small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, but are not retailers and do not need a payment terminal, we can now serve them with all the services for that company to operate," says Scherer.
This new horizon opened up with micro and small businesses, in addition to retail, hints at the potential that Stone's banking unit may have. Today, the company has a base of R$ 11 billion in deposits, mainly from accounts.
This amount generated revenue of nearly R$1 billion for Stone. To give an idea of this volume, last year the company achieved an adjusted net profit of R$2.4 billion in 2025.
“The banking segment is already a reality even though we haven't positioned ourselves as a bank until now. Now, we will have the opportunity for more significant growth. We have been growing at twice the rate of TPV [total payment volume] from cards,” says the CEO.
Scherer took over as CEO of Stone in January of this year, replacing Pedro Zinner who, after three years, moved to the chairmanship of the board of directors. Previously, he was the company's CFO. In the same move, Salgado became CFO, and Bassili, who led Linx, took over as COO.
A moment of pressure.
The fact is that the new phase envisioned by Stone is occurring precisely during a period of financial pressure for the company. In May, Citi downgraded its buy recommendation to neutral and lowered its target price from US$18 to US$11. The bank sees uncertainties in the revenue drivers and asset quality.
In the first quarter of 2026, Stone reported revenue of R$ 3.57 billion, a 6.5% increase over the same period of the previous year. Net income grew 3.5% in the period, reaching R$ 549.1 million. Total paid sales (TPV) reached R$ 137.2 billion, a 2.7% increase. The company will release its second-quarter earnings report on August 13th.
In a report released on Monday, July 21, BTG Pactual estimates that the company will report a net profit of R$ 580 million, which would represent a 6% increase over the previous quarter, but a 3% decrease compared to the same period last year.
"This result would be about 5% below both our estimate and the market consensus, mainly reflecting weaker take rates [transaction commissions] and revenues below our expectations," the document says.
In the year to date, Stone's shares on Nasdaq have fallen by 24.8%. Over the past 12 months, the devaluation is 17.4%. Stone's market capitalization is US$2.7 billion.
