Banco Bradesco
Bradesco rebuilt its metabolism with AI underwriting and WhatsApp payments, accelerating to 18.8% profit growth while trading at discount P/E 9.32.
Bradesco pulled off a metabolic transformation in 2024-2025 that most mature organisms can't achieve: accelerating profit growth while fundamentally rewiring internal operations. The bank reported BRL 17.25 billion earnings in 2024 (21% increase) and by Q3 2025 showed recurring net income up 18.8% year-over-year to BRL 6.2 billion. More telling: loan portfolio growth hit 11.7% driven by personal and MSME lending, precisely the segments where AI-driven underwriting creates competitive advantage. This is phenotypic plasticity—same genetic code (traditional bank structure), radically different expression (digital-first operations).
The AI deployment mirrors Itaú but with higher urgency. Bradesco's customer chatbot achieves 90% retention, and the bank processes WhatsApp transfers in under 10 seconds via smart payments. These aren't features—they're evidence of neural pathway reconstruction. Banks that optimize for branch efficiency die slowly. Banks that rebuild around digital infrastructure adapt fast enough to outcompete both traditional rivals and fintech insurgents. The 13.7% rise in net interest income and 32.7% surge in insurance revenue (Q2 2025) show the metabolic rate increasing across organ systems simultaneously.
What's remarkable: Bradesco trades at P/E 9.32 versus Itaú's 9.91 despite executing an aggressive turnaround. The market sees transformation risk where the biology sees adaptive capacity. Analysts upgraded from Hold to Buy recognizing what happened—an aging organism rejuvenated its metabolic systems without dying first. The challenge ahead: maintaining 13.1% total revenue growth (Q3 2025) while Brazil's digital banking market grows from $6.1 billion to $13.21 billion by 2035 means competition intensifies exactly when Bradesco needs to scale its new infrastructure. The successful turnaround creates the foundation. The next test is whether the rebuilt metabolism can sustain high-growth competition against purpose-built digital predators like Nubank. So far, the vital signs show an organism that adapted instead of dying. That's rarer than it sounds.