The news: Chime has reported Q4 and full-year 2025 results that topped its guidance, as the company reiterated its expectation of GAAP profitability in 2026. Q4 revenues rose 25% YoY to $596 million, while the number of active members grew 19% YoY to 9.5 million. Chime also reported reducing its cost to serve by nearly 23% over the past three years.

Zoom out: Chime is still burning cash. The company is known for lavish spending on advertising; a targeted paid media strategy spanning search, social media, TV, and affiliates; and a personalized referral incentives program. It is however scaling its marketing efforts and aims to target prospects more effectively than with traditional digital marketing: In its IPO filing, Chime outlined a content generation strategy that leverages organic search, including a custom GPT.

Despite this spending, it has made significant progress with expanding its margins:

• Last March, Chime launched Instant Loans, a short-term lending product. It followed it up with a relaunch of its secured credit card in September.
• Also in March, Chime refreshed its app and Chime+ loyalty program, which introduced new deals and a higher savings rate. And in September, it added a cash rewards program tied to Chime+ and its savings account product.

Implications for banks: Chime’s conversion rates are among the highest in the industry, making the company an increasing threat to banks’ sale of banking products in the short term—and potentially primary relationships in the longer term.

Many consumers who open new bank, credit card, and investment accounts migrate just some of their financial activities to that provider instead of switching entirely. But the real risk for the banking industry is if consumers decide that secured credit cards and short-terms loans are sufficient and stop revolving balances on banks’ most profitable lending products.