Singapore’s Sea Ltd has obtained fresh regulatory clearances in Brazil that will enable it to broaden its financial services footprint, according to DealStreetAsia.
The company said it has secured a Sociedade de Crédito Direto (SCD) license and received initial approval for a Sociedade de Crédito, Financiamento e Investimento (SCFI) license, reinforcing its ambition to bring its Southeast Asian fintech model into Latin America.
The SCD license allows lending with the company’s own funds, while the SCFI license provides scope for a wider range of financing activities and more diversified funding.
Both are part of measures introduced by Brazil’s central bank to encourage competition in financial services.
Brazil has become Sea’s fastest-growing market outside Asia. Shopee, its e-commerce platform, has operated there for five years and has added products such as personal loans and buy-now-pay-later.
In the second quarter of 2025, Sea reported that its consumer and SME loan book reached US$6.9 billion, up 94 percent from a year earlier, with adjusted EBITDA from its digital financial services arm rising 55 percent to US$255.3 million.
Sea said its financing in Brazil is backed by external lender partnerships and that the country’s abundant data has strengthened its credit risk models.
Shopee’s continued growth is also supporting the push, with monthly active buyers climbing more than 30 percent year-on-year and digital entrepreneurship promoted among over 8 million Brazilians.
Brazil’s fintech market already includes major players such as Nubank, Stone, and XP.
Sea is betting that embedding lending and payments within Shopee will help it compete more effectively in this crowded market.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Luiz Ribeiro via Freepik
