Chime closed out 2025 with strong momentum, marking its first full year as a public company with continued growth and disciplined execution.
In a CNBC interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Chime Co-Founder and CEO Chris Britt discussed the company's Q4 and Full Year 2025 performance.
Full transcript below.
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Chime Q4 & Full Year 2025 CNBC Interview Transcript
Andrew Ross Sorkin (00:00):
Chime shares rising on an upbeat outlook. The company says demand for its digital banking products remaining strong. Joining us right now is Chris Britt. He is Chime's co-founder and CEO. Good morning to you. It was a strong quarter. Tell us what's going on here.
Chris Britt (00:17):
Great to see you, Andrew. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we're so excited. The team really executed this quarter and really this year. This is our first report as a public company wrapping up our full year results and we just had an outstanding year. We added a million and a half new active members, taking us to about 9.5 million actives. We launched a range of new consumer products that drove our growth. We made critical infrastructure investments in terms of launching our new ChimeCore. So we operate our full stack in-house now. And we also entered new lines of business like our enterprise business where we sell Chime products through the employer channel. And overall, we wrapped up the year with $2.2 billion of revenue, growing 31% year over year. And in Q4 we got to a 10% EBITDA margin. So great growth balanced with operating discipline as well. So we're feeling really good about our position going into 2026.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (01:11):
Who do you see, just for those in the audience who may not be totally familiar with you or understand it well enough, what do you see as your competition right now?
Chris Britt (01:20):
Our key competitors continue to be the traditional banks. We are in the primary account business. We open up relationships with consumers who are seeking bank accounts that are actually helpful and easy and affordable. So we partner with community banks. When a consumer signs up for a Chime account, it's a tri-party agreement between the consumer, Chime, and the bank. The money resides in these FDIC-insured accounts, and we build the brand and the experience and answer the calls and deal with the disputes and run all aspects of the operations. But it's working incredibly well. In fact, JD Power announced just at the end of last year, they did a survey of new bank account openings in the U.S., and they found that 13% of all new checking account openings were through Chime. The number two player was Chase, and we were about 40% higher than them. So we are far and away leading and expanding our market share of primary account relationships in the United States.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (02:23):
Chris, we can't have a conversation without saying the words AI at some point in the interview. How is that changing things as you see it and when do we get to a point where you're involved in agentic transactions?
Chris Britt (02:40):
Yeah, it's a great question and obviously a lot of the swirl in the markets these days have to do with that, particularly as it relates to SaaS companies that have workflows that may be improved or automated through agents. Look, we see AI as a superpower for our company. If you look over the past three years, we've decreased our cost to serve by 30% and increased our revenue per customer, or average revenue per active member, by almost 25%. And so we're putting AI to work in terms of all aspects of our operations, not just decreasing costs but actually improving customer service levels and outcomes. And as we look into Q2, we announced on the call that we'll be launching the next generation of our AI copilot called Jade. If you think about there's so many consumers in America, about 50%, that lack really any basic amount of financial education. And we think that we can really play a critical role in helping our members make smarter decisions — not just get smarter and have knowledge about what to do, but to actually take action to make sure you're paying high-interest credit card bills off, to make sure that you're getting into a healthy rhythm of saving and investing and so forth. And we think we can uniquely play a role for our members because of this primary account relationship that we enjoy.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (04:04):
What about the Chime card, the credit card business? Where do you see yourself in that now? Where do you see this going?
Chris Britt (04:11):
Well, last year we launched Chime card, which is a secured credit card that has rewards. If you think about the rewards landscape, most people are thinking about the Amexes and the Chase Sapphires and these cards that cost many hundreds of dollars a year and are generally for prime and super prime consumers. If you think about basic banking and debit cards — sort of your everyday transactions that regular mainstream America uses — there aren't very good rewards on those types of products. So we launched Chime card, which gives one and a half percent cash back on everyday transactions in some of your most essential categories. And we also announced on the call that in Q2 we'll be launching an elevated level of Chime card, a premier subscription level that will give people even greater rewards, greater APY on their savings. And we're really excited about the opportunity to serve even higher-income consumers better with this product. We think it's going to be the best bank account product in the U.S.
Andrew Ross Sorkin (05:14):
Let me ask you a different question. You were one of the first companies I think to come out publicly and support the Trump accounts for your employees?
Chris Britt (05:23):
We are huge fans of the Trump accounts. I'm so proud of Brad Gerstner. I was part of the CEO council and a strong supporter for years. To see him at the State of the Union being honored was so awesome. And look, there's huge demand for Trump accounts. It's an incredible opportunity to give everyday consumers a piece of the growth and long-term success of our country. We have a tax filing service and we've already seen tens of thousands of consumers initiate the process to set up a Trump account through their tax return. And we're also very close with the administration and Treasury to make sure that we can play a constructive role, because we think that obviously compounding interest — it's the eighth wonder of the world — and if we can get people involved with investments early in their life, nothing's better than that.
