Chime is not a bank, yet two-thirds of its 8.6 million active members used it as their main account. Its partner banks held the money. Chime built the app, the debit card, and the features that big banks charged for or skipped. Paychecks could land up to two days early. SpotMe covered small overdrafts with no fee. Its members were mostly everyday workers, not the wealthy. Chime filed for its IPO in May 2025.

From 1debit to Chime

Chris Britt and Ryan King incorporated the company in 2012 as 1debit. Britt had worked at Visa, and the first product was a debit card with an app. They bet that millions of Americans were tired of minimum balances and surprise fees. Chime made its money mostly from interchange, the small fee merchants pay each time someone swipes a card. It later added a credit-builder card, instant pay advances called MyPay, and free tax filing.

Twenty-Seven to Forty-Three

Chime priced its IPO at $27 a share on June 11, 2025, above its expected range, and listed on Nasdaq as CHYM. The stock opened at $43 the next day and closed up about 37 percent. Britt stayed on as CEO and chair, and the two founders kept most of the voting power through a separate class of shares. Chime still trades on Nasdaq as CHYM.

Cover: A Bell in the Tower Was Ringing the Hour, plate 4 from Edmond Picard's "Le Juré", Odilon Redon. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a bell ringing in a tower (a chime).