Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A.

What it is

Itaú is a universal bank: it lends, takes deposits, runs cards, manages money and sells insurance, to both ordinary people and large companies. It does this across Brazil and in several other Latin American countries.

It is organized as a diversified financial holding company with a large operating bank and multiple financial subsidiaries, managed across customer and product lines rather than as one undifferentiated bank.

Who owns it

Control runs through a holding company called IUPAR, which is shared fifty-fifty by two family camps. IUPAR is jointly controlled by Itaúsa, controlled by the Egydio de Souza Aranha family, and Companhia E.

Johnston, controlled by the Moreira Salles family, the former owners of Unibanco.

So the Setubal, Villela and Moreira Salles families hold the steering wheel together. As of the original deal, IUPAR directly owned 51% of the voting common stock and about 26% of total capital.

The non-voting preferred shares (ITUB4) trade widely, so most of the money is in public hands. Voting power is concentrated in IUPAR and Itaúsa, while the preferred shares trade widely without votes but carry a dividend preference.

Who runs it

The day-to-day chief is Milton Maluhy Filho, Itaú Unibanco’s CEO. The finance chief is Gabriel Amado de Moura, who joined from Banco Itaú Chile.

Above them sits a board with two co-chairs from the two family camps. Pedro Moreira Salles and Roberto Egydio Setubal serve as co-chairmen, a structure built into the 2008 merger pact.

The money, in plain words

Itaú is highly profitable. It keeps about 33 cents of profit from every real of sales — a net margin of 33.3% (our calculation), very high even for a big bank.

For every real owners put in, it earns about 22 back a year — a return on equity of 21.8%, strong. The bank itself targets an annualized recurring return on average equity above 23%.

The shares are not expensive: investors pay about 10 reais for each real of yearly profit — a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.2. And the bank pays out generously, with a dividend yield of 8.0%, meaning roughly 8 reais back each year for every 100 invested.

Profit is still growing. Net profit rose from R$33.1bn (US$6.4bn) in 2023 to R$44.9bn (US$8.7bn) in the latest year — up about 36% over two years (our calculation).

What it is doing now

Itaú keeps posting record quarters. It ended the first quarter of 2026 with recurring net profit of R$12.282bn (US$2.4bn), with return on equity near 25%.

Loan quality is the best in its history at home. In Brazil, the bad-loan rate for individuals reached the best level in the bank’s history, steady at 3.6%.

With capital to spare, it is handing cash back. Recent capital actions include a 3% bonus share issue and R$23.4bn (US$4.5 bn) in cash distributions announced in late 2025 (US$4.5bn).

What to watch

Brazil’s economy is the swing factor. Management flagged that this could be a year with more volatility due to the election scenario and uncertainties ahead.

Watch the cost of lending and whether profits hold near 24-25% returns as that political cycle plays out. Heavy spending on technology and AI is the other thing to track.

This is news, not investment advice.