Chime Financial just decided to stop renting and buy the house. The publicly traded neobank announced on September 8 that it will acquire Stride Bank, N.A. for $590 million in cash, with plans to rebrand the institution as Chime Bank, N.A. once the deal closes.
The move transforms Chime from a fintech that relies on partner banks to process its transactions into something closer to a full-fledged bank, at least structurally. Stride has been Chime’s banking partner for over seven years, so this is less of a blind date and more of a long-overdue marriage.
The math behind the deal
The $590 million price tag works out to roughly 1.5 times Stride’s tangible book value. Chime expects the acquisition to generate more than $100 million in net synergies. The savings come from two main sources: eliminating the sponsor bank fees Chime currently pays, and expanding its lending product suite with direct control over a bank charter.
The deal is structured as an all-cash transaction and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share.
Chime also bumped its financial outlook alongside the announcement. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance now sits at $2.76 to $2.77 billion, representing 26% to 27% year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA guidance climbed to between $481 million and $489 million. Investors noticed: Chime’s stock (NASDAQ: CHYM) rose approximately 6% in after-hours trading following the news.
Why Stride, and why now
Stride Bank, founded in 1913 and headquartered in Enid, Oklahoma, is the kind of institution that most consumers have never heard of but millions have unknowingly used. As Chime’s banking partner, Stride has been the entity that technically holds customer deposits and issues Chime-branded debit cards.
One strategic detail stands out. Chime plans to keep Chime Bank’s assets below $10 billion. That threshold matters because of the Durbin Amendment, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that caps debit card interchange fees for banks with more than $10 billion in assets. Banks below that line collect higher fees per swipe.
Chime will also continue its relationship with The Bancorp Bank, N.A. for the time being, suggesting the transition to full in-house banking will be gradual rather than an overnight switch.
The regulatory path to closing this deal runs through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve. Chime expects approvals to land in the first half of 2027.