CSU Digital Launches U.S. Market Expansion at New York Executive Summit

Senior payments and banking leaders gather at The Plaza Hotel to discuss the future of payment infrastructure, global trends and CSU Digital’s expansion into the U.S. market

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CSU Digital is Latin America’s largest independent card processor, managing more than 50 million cards and processing nearly $100 billion in annual transactions. This week, the company brought its U.S. expansion plans into focus at its executive summit at The Plaza Hotel in New York City, drawing senior payments, banking and fintech leaders for a half-day of discussion on the state of U.S. card processing infrastructure.

The June 18 event featured opening remarks by CSU Digital Founder and CEO Marcos Ribeiro Leite, followed by a panel with Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, and Simon Baptist, Principal Economist for Asia Pacific at Visa. Attendees included CEOs, CFOs and heads of payments from financial institutions and brands across the U.S. and Brazil.

Leite framed the moment as a step forward for his company. "This executive summit reflects more than three decades of building the infrastructure that powers Brazil's card economy," he said. "We’re bringing that experience, and that scale, to the executives in this room and to issuers across the U.S."

The summit marked a new chapter for a company built over three decades ago in Brazil. Founded in 1992, CSU Digital was the country’s pioneering independent electronic payment processor, simultaneously handling Visa, Mastercard and American Express transactions nationally. It now holds about 50% market share among Brazilian card processors and is listed on B3's Novo Mercado segment under the ticker CSUD3.

While building its U.S. presence, CSU Digital is also positioning itself as a processing partner for U.S. companies entering Brazil, offering network-ready infrastructure, regulatory navigation and rapid card program launch without requiring proprietary technology investment.

"Issuers in the U.S. are working with a processor that has proven itself at scale with some of Brazil’s largest banks," Leite said. “We know what it takes for businesses of any size to launch, scale and succeed.”

CSU Digital’s U.S. platform is built on a cloud-native architecture and certified across multiple networks. It holds PCI DSS and SOC 2 certifications and is designed for API-first integration. Embedded AI capabilities cover fraud detection, back-office automation, customer service and financial advisory functions. The company’s hyperautomation platform, already deployed with three operators in Brazil, has reduced dispute processing time by up to 90%.

Early findings from CSU Digital’s 2026 study on the U.S. card processing industry, based on insights from decision-makers at over 100 issuers (including traditional banks, fintechs and community financial institutions), reveal considerable pressure on the sector. Over 70% of participants reported that outdated processors hinder their growth and are considering switching. Additionally, more than 90% expressed a preference for cloud-native systems and AI integration in their processing solutions.

Leite framed CSU Digital’s U.S. launch as a personal commitment. "This matters to me personally," he said. "I am committed to building its presence in the U.S. with the same consistency and the same care my company has shown in Brazil over the last three decades."

CSU Digital is a publicly traded company headquartered in São Paulo, with additional operations in Belo Horizonte, Recife and São Paulo’s Faria Lima district. Its U.S. operations are based in Miami.

About CSU Digital

CSU Digital is Latin America’s largest independent issuer-processor, founded in 1992 as Brazil’s first independent electronic payment processor and the first to work simultaneously with Visa, Mastercard and American Express. The company is listed on B3’s Novo Mercado under the ticker CSUD3.