I’ve been thinking a lot about Chime lately.

Not just because it went public last year—but because 2025 feels like the year Chime officially crossed from “fintech curiosity” to “boardroom problem.”

If you’re a regional bank or credit union executive and Chime isn’t coming up in conversations yet, it will be soon. According to Cornerstone Advisors’ 2026 “What’s Going on in Banking” report by Ron Shevlin, concern about banks like Chime has risen from 49% in 2025 to 70% in 2026:

The Chime IPO Wasn’t the Story — The Signal Was

Chime priced its IPO in June 2025 at $27 per share, raising roughly $864 million and debuting with a valuation around $11.6B—well below its 2021 private-market peak of ~$25B .

On paper, that looks like a valuation reset. And it was.

But what really mattered was the first day. The stock surged into the low-to-mid $40s before settling back. That pop wasn’t about fundamentals—it was about confidence. The public markets were effectively saying:

“This company matters.”

Since then, the stock has traded with plenty of volatility. As of mid-January 2026, it’s hovering around its IPO price.

JD Power Quietly Confirmed What Many Feared

One data point really jumped out at me this year.

According to JD Power’s Q3 2025 Account Opening research, Chime ranked #1 in both:

• Percentage of new accounts opened

• Conversion rate

Those two metrics are obviously linked—but together, they tell a much bigger story. Chime isn’t just attracting demand (with their $500M marketing spend). It’s capturing it.

The Narrative Inside Banks Has Changed

I’ve been talking to friends across banks and credit unions, and the tone has shifted noticeably.

For years, the refrain was:

“Chime is onboarding customers we don’t really want anyway.”

That might have been true in 2014. But fast-forward a decade. Those early Chime users are now:

• Wage earners

• Buying their first cars

• Thinking about mortgages

• Opening joint accounts

• Building real financial lives

Suddenly, those “non-customers” look a lot like… your future customers.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before (Hello, Rocket Mortgage)

This all feels very familiar.

I remember conversations years ago where banks confidently said:

“Nobody wants to apply for a $500,000 mortgage online. They want to talk to an expert.”

Rocket Mortgage proved otherwise. In 2024 alone, Rocket originated ~$97.6B in mortgages—about 5.9% market share by volume, making it the second-largest lender in the country.

The lesson wasn’t that expertise doesn’t matter. The lesson was that friction kills intent.

“But We Can’t Outspend Chime”

Correct. And you don’t need to.

Chime reportedly spent ~$519M on sales and marketing in 2024. Most regional banks and credit unions will never match that—and shouldn’t try.

The real opportunity is hiding in plain sight. People are coming to your website – checking out your products and in some cases beginning to apply … but they’re not finishing.

Conversion Is the Most Underrated Growth Lever in Banking

I’ve been working on digital account opening for ~15 years. Even today, here’s what I typically see:

• ~30% of users who click “Apply Now” actually finish the application

• Of those, fraud / KYC / AML checks can reject up to 50%

Do the math.

• 100 interested prospects → 30 completed apps → ~15 funded accounts

That’s brutal.

Now compare that to Chime’s 77% conversion rate.

Chime has been very public about making account opening dead simple and pushing fraud detection downstream into transaction monitoring. Personally, I’m not a fan of that trade-off.

But here’s the thing…

I’ve Seen This Work — At Scale. I worked with a ~$6B bank to deploy a digital account opening flow that:

• Could be completed in ~2 minutes

• Delivered 63% completion rates

• Had practically zero fraud

The experience was so effective that it’s since been adopted by institutions ranging from $2B to $50B in assets.

It works.

You don’t need $500M in ad spend. You need:

• Relentless focus on drop-off points

• Smarter identity orchestration

• Better handoffs between UX and risk teams

Why This Is Chime’s “Amazon Moment”

Amazon didn’t win because it sold cheaper books. It won because it made buying easier, then broader, then inevitable.

Chime isn’t winning because it’s a “neobank.” It’s winning because it removes friction where incumbents still tolerate it.

The scary part for traditional institutions isn’t Chime’s IPO price.

It’s that the playbook is now obvious—and proven.

The question is no longer if customers will expect this experience.

It’s whether your institution will deliver it—or explain why it didn’t.

Want a Chime-like experience? Drop me a message - the conversation is free.