Nu Holdings missed Wall Street estimates in the first quarter and the market reacted fast, sending Nu Stock down about 10% in the initial move after the results. The company reported earnings per share of $0.1776, below the $0.1874 consensus, and revenue of $4.97 billion against expectations of $5.06 billion.

Even so, the numbers were not uniformly weak. Net income climbed 56.39% from a year earlier, while the efficiency ratio improved to 17.6% from 19.9% in the prior quarter. Nu Holdings also said its credit portfolio expanded to $37.2 billion, up 40% year over year, and that its return on equity stayed at 29%.

The biggest pressure point was credit. Expected credit losses rose to $1.72 billion from $973.54 million in the prior quarter, and operating cash flow swung to negative $1.21 billion. That mattered because investors were already looking for proof that the company could keep funding growth without letting credit quality slip as its loan book expanded.

Nu Holdings said Mexico reached break-even in the first quarter, a milestone that adds weight to its push beyond Brazil. The company said its Mexico customer base topped 15 million and that it now serves more than 135 million customers overall. It also said monthly cost-to-serve per active customer came in at $1.00, with efficiency ratios in Mexico improving by 78 percentage points and ARPAC there nearly doubling. The company said the Mexico customer base has grown roughly sevenfold in four years and is now the third-largest financial institution in the country by customer count for Nu Holdings.

The results showed a business still growing quickly, but also one facing a sharper test of discipline. Before the report, the share price had already fallen 23% since February, while the stock traded at 19 times forward earnings and carried an average analyst target of $19.87. The question now is whether Nu Holdings can keep turning its Brazil playbook into a repeatable model in Mexico and elsewhere without paying more for credit losses than the market is willing to forgive.

That test is already moving inside the product. NuFormer AI models are making real-time lending decisions in Brazil and Mexico, pricing and approving personal loans individually in under a second. For Nu Holdings, the pace of growth is no longer the issue. The question is whether it can keep that speed while keeping the numbers under control.