BBVA vs NU: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of September 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. BBVA and NU share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined BBVA and NU exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) is a global financial group headquartered in Bilbao and Madrid, Spain, and one of the largest banks in the euro zone by market value. It operates retail and commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and asset management across several geographies, but unlike most European peers the bulk of its earnings comes from emerging markets. Its main reporting areas are Spain, Mexico, Turkey (through its Garanti BBVA subsidiary), and South America, with a smaller Rest of Business unit. Mexico is the single largest profit contributor, typically generating a larger share of group net profit than the home market, which is why BBVA is often described as a Spanish bank with a Mexican engine. Like any bank it makes money mainly from net interest income (the spread between what it earns on loans and pays on deposits) plus fees and commissions from cards, payments, asset management, and investment banking.

Full BBVA guide

Nu Holdings is the parent of Nubank, a digital bank built entirely around a mobile app rather than branches. It earns money the way a bank does: net interest income from credit cards and personal loans, plus fees and interchange, increasingly funded by a large, low-cost deposit base. By March 2026 deposits had grown roughly 29% year over year to nearly $42 billion and the loan book had passed $30 billion, while the company kept its cost structure unusually lean, reporting an efficiency ratio under 18%. Growth comes from two levers stacked together: signing up new customers (over 135 million globally, with Brazil past ~115 million, Mexico past ~15 million, and Colombia approaching ~5 million) and raising how much each customer transacts and borrows over time.

Full NU guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• BBVA drivers: Mexico as the profit engine; Record profitability and high return on equity.
• NU drivers: Customer growth still compounding; Monetizing the existing base.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: BBVA's biggest distinguishing risk is geographic concentration in emerging markets: with Mexico, Turkey, and South America driving much of group profit, reported euro earnings are highly sensitive to the Mexican peso and Turkish lira, which can weaken sharply and erode results even when local-currency performance is strong. For NU, the dominant risk is the consumer credit cycle.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick BBVA if you believe its drivers more; NU if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the BBVA and NU guides.

BBVA. BBVA trades at a low-double-digit price-to-earnings multiple, cheaper than many US banks, reflecting the market discount applied to its emerging-market exposure. Its return on tangible equity near 19% is well above most western European peers, and it returns capital through a high dividend and buybacks. Because the ADR reports in euros while much of the profit is earned in pesos and lira, currency moves are a material driver of the figures above.

NU. Figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date; verify live numbers before acting. NU trades at a premium to traditional banks on a P/E basis, which reflects its growth and high returns on equity rather than incumbent-bank multiples. The valuation already embeds continued customer growth and contained credit losses, so the figures matter most as a gauge of how much optimism is priced in.

Headline figures (approximate, July 2026): BBVA shows net attributable profit (fy2025) ~EUR 10.5 billion (record, up ~4.5%), net interest income (fy2025) ~EUR 25 billion, return on tangible equity (fy2025) ~19% (rising toward ~22% in Q1 2026), net profit (q1 2026) ~EUR 3.0 billion (up ~11% year over year); NU shows revenue (q1 2026 quarterly) ~$5.0 billion, a record single quarter, customers ~135 million+ across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, net income (q1 2026) ~$871 million, a record first quarter, return on equity ~high-20s to ~30% (historical range).

BBVA and NU are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined BBVA and NU exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.