- Key insight: ChimeCore migration and Chime Card rollout is shifting the neobank's revenue toward interchange fees.
- Supporting data: Q3 revenue $543.5 million; active users up 21% to 9.1 million.
- Expert quote: CEO Christopher Britt said member spending remains robust with no signs of consumer pullback in current economic conditions.
Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
The neobank Chime raised its full-year outlook upon releasing its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, as the fintech is capturing increased consumer demand for digital banking services.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $543.5 million, increasing by 28.8% from $421.9 million a year earlier and exceeding Wall Street estimates of $531 million, according to S&P Global.
Chime now expects its full-year revenue to be in the range of $2.163 billion to $2.173 billion, up from its prior forecast of $2.135 billion to $2.155 billion.
The earnings report stated that Chime's number of active users, or consumers who have initiated at least one money movement transaction on the platform within the last month, has grown by 21% year over year to
Chime CEO Christopher Britt asserted that the neobank did "not see signs of a pullback" in consumer spending this quarter as purchase volume increased 15% year over year to $32.3 billion, even as mass layoffs and the ongoing government shutdown have rattled the U.S. economy.
"Despite what you hear in the headlines around macro risk and health of consumers, among our members, we're seeing spending that's remaining robust," Britt said. "Despite all the noise, our data suggests that consumers are healthy, consumers are remaining employed, and in general, appear to be on pretty steady ground."
Chime also announced in its company earnings call on Wednesday that it recently completed a migration onto ChimeCore, an in-house core processor that the fintech initially
"We're now 100% on our own technology stack," Britt said on the earnings call. "ChimeCore sets us apart from both traditional banks and fintechs that rely on costly and often inflexible third-party solutions. ChimeCore allowed us to launch our new Chime Card, a key driver of growth for 2026 and beyond."
Britt said the fintech's recently launched credit card product would be a stronger source of revenue for Chime in future quarters.
"Because it's a credit card, we earn 175 basis points of interchange, which is over 50% higher than our average Q3 take rate," he said. "The results in the first two months are promising. New members who adopted Chime Card are already using it for 80% of their spend. Portfolio-wide spend on our credit card products represents only 16% of total purchase volume as of Q3, so we're very excited about the growth potential as volume shifts to credit spend."
The fintech experienced a net loss of $54.7 million for the quarter, a 148% increase from the $22 million net loss reported a year earlier. However, the diluted earnings per share was -$0.15 per share, a 55% improvement from the -$0.34 per share reported this time last year.
The company also disclosed that it expects to sustain a large one-time expense in the upcoming quarter as part of the transition to ChimeCore.
"As part of our termination agreement with our third-party processor, Galileo, we will incur a one-time expense of approximately $33 million," said Chime's Chief Financial Officer Matthew Newcomb on the company earnings call. "We originally expected to recognize this expense in Q1 2026, but with our ChimeCore migration concluding ahead of schedule we now expect to recognize this in Q4. We will maintain a contractual relationship with Galileo through March 2026."
An analyst report from Keefe, Bruyette and Woods maintained its outperform rating on Chime's stock, stating that Chime "delivered a strong print with momentum across a number of growth initiatives, continued stability in consumer spending, improving loss rates, and solid execution on operating leverage that is helping expand profitability at a faster pace than previously anticipated. While stock has been weak, we think this print coupled with the share buyback program should help get investors off the sidelines."
Chime's stock was down by 2% in mid-afternoon trading on Thursday.
A Willaim Blair analyst report said that "the market is viewing liquidity products incorrectly" and also gave the fintech an outperform rating.
"We contend that the U.S. consumer finance economy is rapidly changing, with consumers shunning predatory traditional banks in favor of those serving their needs, including more choice, better APY and short-term liquidity solutions," the report said. "This underpins our bullish overall digital payments outlook."
