Fundo Garantidor de Créditos (FGC) protects up to R$250,000 per depositor per institution, with a R$1M aggregate cap across all FGC-member institutions over a 4-year window. Cover applies to full credit institutions (bancos múltiplos, comerciais, etc.) only. Brazilian fintechs licensed as IPMP (Instituições de Pagamento) are NOT FGC members — customer funds are segregated but not insured.
Primary source: https://www.fgc.org.br/
A full Brazilian bank — not a SOFOM, not a financeira
Banco Inter S.A. holds a Banco Múltiplo licence — the broadest of Brazil's chartered-bank classifications — supervised by Banco Central do Brasil. The licence has been in force since the institution was founded in 1994 (originally as Banco Intermedium, renamed to Banco Inter when the digital pivot launched in 2015). That matters because Brazil's regulatory rulebook draws a hard line between three categories: full credit institutions (bancos múltiplos / comerciais), restricted credit institutions (Sociedades de Crédito, Financiamento e Investimento, or financeiras), and payment institutions (Instituições de Pagamento). Only the first category gets the cleanest protection chain — direct, full-bank cover under FGC, no product-eligibility small print at the licence level. Inter sits in that first category.
FGC cover, end-to-end
The Fundo Garantidor de Créditos covers eligible deposit products at FGC-member institutions up to R$250,000 per CPF per institution, with a R$1,000,000 aggregate ceiling across all FGC-member institutions over a rolling four-year window. Because Banco Inter is a chartered bank, the standard FGC product scope applies: depósito à vista (Conta Inter checking balance), depósito de poupança, CDBs, LCIs, LCAs, and the other Brazilian deposit instruments that FGC enumerates. What FGC does not cover at Inter is the same as at any other Brazilian bank: investing-product holdings (stocks, ETFs, Tesouro Direto), Inter Shop cashback balances that haven't been swept into a deposit, and any USD-denominated balances held outside the Brazilian banking entity. See the FGC explainer for the eligibility table.
The Miami branch (new, January 2026)
In January 2026, Inter received approval to open an international banking branch in Miami (reported by PYMNTS). The branch is the regulated home for the rebranded Inter Global Account and extends Inter's banking and credit products to US residents, non-US residents, and international businesses. The structural change to note: deposits at the Miami branch are not FGC-covered. International banking branches in the United States are supervised under US federal and state branch-supervision rules, and depositor protection (where it applies at all) operates under the US framework, not under Brazil's. Verify the licence type and any applicable cover via the relevant US regulator before sizing balances. The Brazilian deposit base under the Banco Múltiplo licence is unaffected by the Miami branch and remains under FGC.
Inter US / Inter Global Account: how the model evolved
Before the Miami branch, the Inter Global Account was the USD-account sidecar for Brazilian residents — a US-based account product wired into the Inter app to allow holding and spending USD without leaving the super-app. That earlier configuration relied on US partner-bank arrangements, which is a meaningfully different protection posture from a Brazilian-licensed deposit. With the Miami branch live, the picture simplifies: Inter itself is now the regulated US-side counterparty for the Global Account product, rather than a non-bank fronting a partner-bank account. The underlying depositor-protection question still has to be answered against US rules — but the chain is shorter and the counterparty is Inter's own branch.
What happens if Banco Inter fails
For Brazilian-deposit balances, the FGC claim path is the same as for any other FGC-member chartered bank: BACEN initiates resolution, FGC publishes a claim window, and depositors are paid out up to the R$250,000 per-CPF ceiling (subject to the R$1,000,000 four-year aggregate cap). Listed-company status adds a transparency layer: Inter & Co Inc. files quarterly with the SEC under ticker INTR, so the financial picture of the group is observable independently of regulator disclosure.
Verdict
Banco Inter is among the safer LATAM neobanks on the licence question — chartered-bank cover at full Banco Múltiplo level, in force for three decades, with direct FGC protection on the Brazilian deposit base. The structural caveats are the usual ones: the R$250,000 per-CPF ceiling and the R$1M four-year aggregate cap apply, investing products are not deposit-equivalent, and the new Miami branch's deposit protection has to be evaluated under US rules rather than Brazilian ones. For balances at or below the FGC ceiling held in Brazilian deposit products, the protection is equivalent to any other major Brazilian bank.
IPMP (Instituições de Pagamento) customer funds are segregated from the institution's own balance sheet but are NOT FGC-protected. Verify the licence class with Banco Central do Brasil before assuming deposit cover. Crypto and investing products are regulated separately by CVM.