What is Chime's role in the digital payments transformation?
Chime calls its model payments-led: card spend by everyday Americans drives most of its revenue. Members' purchase volume on Chime-branded debit and credit cards was $133.7 billion in 2025, up from $115.2 billion in 2024 and $92.4 billion in 2023, and $38 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 17%. Payments revenue, mostly interchange, was $1.5 billion in 2025. Active Members grew from 6.6 million at the end of 2023 to 10.4 million at June 30, 2026, and the 10-K says the majority rely on Chime as their primary financial relationship. The mix is shifting from debit to credit: credit cards were 16% of purchase volume in 2024 and 27% in Q2 2026, after the secured Chime Card launched in September 2025. Money also moves outside card rails: outbound instant transfers, launched in January 2025, reached $640 million of volume in Q3 2025, and SpotMe, MyPay and Instant Loans exited 2025 at over $40 billion of annualized originations. All of it runs on ChimeCore, Chime's own processor since late 2025. AI sits on the fraud and underwriting side of that shift.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Data as of Oct 19, 2026 · Chime profile updated Oct 16, 2026 · 13 sources cited on this page · 52 fintechs profiled on this site · Markdown
How much does Chime process, and how fast is it growing?
From Chime's 10-K, 10-Q and quarterly earnings releases (8-K Exhibit 99.1). Purchase Volume (PV) is the dollar value of member purchases on Chime-branded debit and credit cards; it excludes deposits, ATM withdrawals, SpotMe and MyPay advances, Pay Anyone and outbound instant transfers (OIT).
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase Volume | $133,680 million (2025); $115,152 million (2024); $92,396 million (2023) | 2023–2025[2] |
| Purchase Volume including OIT | $134 billion, up 16%; $136 billion including OIT volume, up 18% | 2025[7] |
| Purchase Volume, quarterly | $32.3 billion, up 15% (Q3 2025); $34.4 billion, up 13% (Q4 2025); $39 billion, up 12% (Q1 2026) | Q3 2025–Q1 2026[6][7][8] |
| Purchase Volume, Q2 2026 | $38,034 million against $32,430 million in Q2 2025; $39.4 billion including OIT volume, up 20% | Q2 2026[3][4] |
| Active Members | 6.6 million (2023); 8.0 million (2024); 9.5 million (2025), as of each fourth quarter; 10.4 million, up 20%, at June 30, 2026 | 2023–2026[2][4] |
| Payments revenue | $1,500.6 million in 2025, up 18%, against $1,276.6 million in 2024; $430 million in Q2 2026, up 17% | 2024–Q2 2026[2][4] |
| Credit share of Purchase Volume | 16% (2024); 17% (2025); 27% (Q2 2026), with debit at 73% | 2024–Q2 2026[2][3] |
| Average revenue per Active Member (ARPAM) | $245 (2024); $257 (2025); $260 in Q2 2026, up 6% | 2024–Q2 2026[2][4] |
| Liquidity originations | SpotMe, MyPay and Instant Loans exited 2025 at over $40 billion in annualized origination volume; MyPay originations $4.5 billion in Q2 2026 at a 0.9% loss rate; Instant Loans originations $300 million in Q2 2026 | 2025–Q2 2026[7][4] |
How is the way Chime members pay and move money changing?
| Shift | What Chime reports | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Debit to credit | Chime Card, a secured Visa credit card with 1.5% cash back for Chime+ members, launched September 9, 2025; credit share of PV rose from 16% in September 2025 to 21% in December and nearly 25% in March 2026 | 2025–2026[5][7][8] |
| Card built on Chime's own core | Chime Card is the first product built entirely on ChimeCore; over half of new member cohorts adopt it and put over 70% of their Chime spend on it | Q4 2025[7] |
| Primary account and direct deposit | Chime Prime, launched April 2, 2026 for members with $3,000 or more in monthly qualifying direct deposits, offers 5% cash back on a chosen Chime Card category; Prime members generated more than double the ARPAM of the average Active Member in Q2 2026 | 2026[9][4] |
| Instant outbound transfers | OIT launched in January 2025 at a 1.75% fee to move funds instantly to members' other accounts; $640 million of volume in Q3 2025; processed by TabaPay | 2025[6][2] |
| Peer-to-peer | Pay Anyone lets members send instant payments to anyone, regardless of whether the recipient uses Chime; no volume disclosed | FY2025 10-K[2] |
| Earned wage access | MyPay, launched in 2024, passed $400 million in annualized revenue in Q4 2025 with a transaction margin of nearly 60% | Q4 2025[7][2] |
| Employer channel | Chime Workplace embedded in Workday Wellness, giving access to Workday's 11,000 customers and 75 million users under contract (August 2025); UKG partnership (Q3 2025); Allied Universal and a large national retailer signed, together employing more than 350,000 people (Q2 2026) | 2025–2026[10][6][4] |
Which networks and processors does Chime's money movement run on?
| Component | Role | Date |
|---|---|---|
| ChimeCore | Proprietary payment processor and ledger, launched in 2024; Chime reported the migration complete, ahead of schedule, on November 5, 2025, and as of November 2025 it processes all payments, transfers, deposits and withdrawals | 2024–2025[2][6] |
| Visa | Chime Debit Cards are Visa-branded debit cards issued by Chime's bank partners; the Chime Card is a secured Chime Visa credit card | 2025[2][5] |
| Partner banks | The Bancorp Bank, N.A. and Stride Bank, N.A. hold member accounts and issue the cards; Chime earns interchange-based fees from the card programs | FY2025 10-K[2] |
| TabaPay | Third-party instant money movement platform that processes outbound instant transfers | FY2025 10-K[2] |
| ATM and cash networks | ATM access through Allpoint, MoneyPass and Visa Plus Alliance; cash deposits processed mainly by Interactive Communications International; 47,000 fee-free ATMs cited at the Chime Card launch | 2025[2][5] |
| Stride Bank acquisition (pending) | Definitive agreement for $590 million in cash; Stride would become Chime Bank, N.A.; Chime says owning the bank will eliminate partner-bank fees and reduce funding cost; expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to OCC and Federal Reserve approval | September 8, 2026[11] |
How does Chime frame the shift, where does AI come in, and what is not disclosed?
Chime describes a payments-driven model. The 10-K says purchase volume is a key driver of payments revenue because interchange fees are generally set as a percentage of it, and interchange from debit card transactions was 49% of 2025 revenue. CEO Chris Britt's 2025 letter says Chime generates revenue primarily through payments and puts its cost to serve at roughly one-third of large banks.[2][1]
The Stride agreement is framed as the next step in the same model: Chime says it will stay "payments-led and asset-light", expects more than $100 million in net synergies, and will keep its assets below $10 billion for the foreseeable future.[11]
AI enters as the control layer on faster money movement. Chime's real-time fraud pipeline ingests card swipes and peer-to-peer payments, its 10-K describes sub-second machine learning predictions for fraud, and its Q2 2026 10-Q warns that generative and agentic AI have made fraud attacks more sophisticated. The AI products are on the companion page.[12][2][3]
What is not disclosed: transaction counts, Pay Anyone volume, OIT volume after Q3 2025 as a standalone figure, digital wallet or tokenized share of card spend, and which real-time payment rails its instant transfers use beyond naming TabaPay as processor. The FY2025 10-K does not mention RTP or FedNow.[2][6]
What does the Chime profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Chime AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 16, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 13 dated moves, 8 use cases and 15 sources.
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 8, 2026 | Agreement to acquire Stride Bank | Chime agrees to buy its partner bank Stride Bank, N.A. for $590 million in cash; Stride would become Chime Bank, N.A., subject to OCC and Federal Reserve approval, with closing expected in the first half of 2027. | [11] |
| Aug 5, 2026 | Q2 2026 results and CFO change | Revenue reaches $670 million (+27%) and Active Members 10.4 million; CFO Matt Newcomb steps down and President Mark Troughton becomes President and Interim CFO. | [4] |
| May 6, 2026 | Q1 2026: 84% of code shipped with AI assistance | Chime reports $647 million revenue (+25%) and $53 million net income, and says AI-assisted code development scaled from about 29% to 84% of code shipped in four months while headcount stayed flat. | [8] |
| Apr 17, 2026 | Shareholder letter names Jade as the next step | Chris Britt's 2025 letter reports $2.2 billion in 2025 revenue (+31%) and 9.5 million active members, and describes Jade as an AI co-pilot meant to understand a member's full financial picture and, with permission, act on their behalf. | [1] |
| Jun 11, 2025 | IPO priced on Nasdaq | Chime prices its initial public offering of 32,000,000 Class A shares at $27.00, with trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under 'CHYM' expected from 12 June 2025. | [13] |
How much payment volume does Chime process?
Chime members made $133.7 billion of purchases on Chime-branded debit and credit cards in 2025, up from $115.2 billion in 2024, per its FY2025 10-K. In the second quarter of 2026 purchase volume was $38 billion, up 17%, or $39.4 billion including outbound instant transfer volume.
How does Chime make money from payments?
Mostly from interchange. Payments revenue was $1.5 billion of Chime's $2.2 billion total revenue in 2025, and interchange from debit card transactions alone was 49% of revenue. Chime also earns platform-related revenue from MyPay, instant transfer fees, ATMs and Instant Loans, which grew 73% in 2025 to $686 million.
Is Chime moving members from debit to credit?
Yes. After the secured Chime Card launched in September 2025, credit card transactions rose from 16% of purchase volume in September to 21% in December 2025 and 27% in the second quarter of 2026, per Chime's earnings release and 10-Q. Chime says credit spend earns materially higher take rates than debit.
Does Chime own a bank?
Not yet. On September 8, 2026 Chime agreed to buy its partner bank Stride Bank, N.A. for $590 million in cash. Stride would become Chime Bank, N.A. The deal needs OCC and Federal Reserve approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2027; until then accounts are held at The Bancorp Bank and Stride.
What payment processor does Chime use?
Its own. ChimeCore, a proprietary payment processor and ledger launched in 2024, processes all of Chime's payments, transfers, deposits and withdrawals as of November 2025, after a migration away from Galileo Financial Technologies. Outbound instant transfers are processed by TabaPay, and Chime's debit and credit cards run on Visa.
- 2025 Letter to Shareholders
- Chime Financial, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Chime Financial, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026
- Chime Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
- Chime Makes Fee-Free Banking Even More Rewarding: Introducing New Chime Card with Cash Back Rewards and Elevated Design
- Chime Reports Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Chime Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Chime Reports First Quarter 2026 Financial Results
- America's #1 Choice for Banking Expands Its Lead with the Launch of Chime Prime
- Chime secures new distribution channel with Workday partnership
- Chime Announces Agreement to Acquire Stride Bank
- How Chime Financial uses AWS to build a serverless stream analytics platform and defeat fraudsters
- Chime Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
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