Chime Reports First Quarter 2026 Financial Results

Published: 2026-05-06 16:07:08 ET CHYM

Strong top-line momentum with 25% year-over-year revenue growth, exceeding guidance Achieves first quarter of GAAP profitability as a public company Raises full-year guidance and announces an additional $200 million share repurchase authorization

Published on 05/06/2026 at 04:07 pm EDT

Chime® (Nasdaq: CHYM), America’s #1 Choice for Banking1, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

“We’re off to a strong start in 2026, exceeding the high end of our revenue guidance, delivering strong incremental margins, and achieving our first quarter of GAAP profitability as a public company. These results underscore the strength and resilience of our business model,” said Chris Britt, CEO and Co-founder of Chime. “We also reached 10.2 million Active Members, with more Americans opening bank accounts with Chime than any other financial institution1, putting us more than 50% ahead of our closest competitor. With the launch of Chime Prime, our new premium membership tier, we’re demonstrating accelerating product velocity powered by our ChimeCore technology stack. We’re well positioned to build on this momentum with more products to help our members unlock greater financial progress.”

First Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights

We reported strong top- and bottom-line growth in the first quarter, exceeding our guidance and reflecting disciplined execution. In addition, Q1 benefits from the seasonal tailwind from tax refund-related activity.

First Quarter 2026 Business Highlights

Share Repurchase Authorization

As we completed our prior share repurchase authorization, our Board of Directors has approved an additional $200 million share repurchase, demonstrating management and the Board's continued confidence in Chime’s financial strength and future potential. Under this program, we are authorized to repurchase shares of Class A common stock from time to time through open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions, and other means subject to market conditions and in compliance with applicable securities laws, including through Rule 10b5-1 plans. Open market repurchases may be structured to occur in accordance with the requirements of Rule 10b-18. The timing, manner, price, and amount of any repurchases will be determined by Chime at its discretion and depend on a variety of factors, including legal requirements, price, and economic and market conditions. The additional repurchase authorization does not obligate us to repurchase any particular amount of Class A common stock and may be suspended or discontinued at any time at our discretion without prior notice, subject to all applicable securities laws.

Outlook

We are raising our full-year guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA. For the full year of 2026, we now expect:

For the second quarter of 2026, we expect:

The outlook provided above constitutes forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws and is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a number of risks. See cautionary note regarding “Forward-Looking Statements” in the press release.

__________________

In a quarterly J.D. Power study conducted via consumer survey between October and December 2025, more new checking accounts were opened through Chime than any listed financial institution or financial partner. Chime offers access to checking accounts used for everyday banking. AMERICA’S #1 CHOICE FOR BANKING is a Trademark of Chime Financial, Inc.

Conference Call Information

Chime will host a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2026 financial results and financial outlook at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) today. A live webcast of the earnings conference call will be accessible on Chime’s Investor Relations website at investors.chime.com. A replay will be available on the Investor Relations website following the call.

An investor presentation, including supplemental financial information and reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures to their nearest comparable GAAP measures, will be available through Chime’s Investor Relations website at investors.chime.com.

About Chime

Chime (Nasdaq: CHYM) is a financial technology company founded on the premise that core banking services should be helpful, easy, and free. We offer a broad range of low-cost banking and payments products that address the most critical financial needs of everyday people. Our member-aligned business model has helped millions of people to unlock financial progressTM. Member deposits are FDIC-insured through The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC, up to applicable limits*.

*Chime® is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC. Deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “would,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “goal,” “objective,” “seek,” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology that concern Chime’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this release may relate to, but are not limited to, expectations of future results of operations or financial performance of Chime, expectations regarding certain of our key financial and operating metrics, our business and growth strategy, including future product development plans and growth, our market opportunity, the performance of newly launched products and innovations, our technological capabilities, including our ability to embed AI across the platform and the ability of ChimeCore to reduce processing costs and accelerate innovation, the demand for Chime’s products and services, our expectations and management of future growth and acceleration, our expectations regarding our industry and traditional banks, and our ability to execute our repurchase authorization, as well as assumptions relating to the foregoing. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved, if at all.

Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made or on management’s good faith beliefs and assumptions as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in, or suggested by, the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include risks related to our ability to attract and retain Active Members; our relationships with our bank partners; changes in rules and practices concerning interchange fees, card network fees, and other fees and assessments; our ability to maintain and protect our brand; our ability to maintain member satisfaction and provide reliable member support; our ability to develop new products and enhancements for existing products; our reliance on third parties and their systems; our history of net losses and ability to achieve and maintain profitability; and the complex and evolving laws and regulations applicable to our business and the banking ecosystem. Further information on these risks and other factors that could affect our financial results are set forth in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. Except as required by law, Chime does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our consolidated financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), we use certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including transaction profit, transaction margin, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margin, to facilitate analysis of our financial trends and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We use these non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with GAAP measures to evaluate our operating performance, formulate business plans, prepare budgets and forecasts, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of internal resources. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors, analysts, and others about our business and financial performance, enhance their overall understanding of our performance, and can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our financial performance across periods. Our definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Further, these metrics have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected on our consolidated statements of operations. Accordingly, our non-GAAP financial measures are presented for supplemental purposes only and should be considered in addition to, and not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included at the end of this release.

We have not provided the forward-looking GAAP equivalents for certain forward-looking non-GAAP measures included in this release, or a GAAP reconciliation, as a result of the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, reconciling items such as stock-based compensation expense. Accordingly, a reconciliation of these forward-looking non-GAAP metrics to their corresponding forward-looking GAAP equivalents is not available without unreasonable effort. However, it is important to note that material changes to reconciling items could have a significant effect on future GAAP results.

Adjusted EBITDA

We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted for (i) depreciation and amortization expense, (ii) other income (expense), net, (iii) provision (benefit) for income taxes, (iv) stock-based compensation expense including related payroll tax, and (v) certain expenses that do not reflect our core operations and may vary significantly from period to period, including restructuring charges, impairment charges, stock-based charitable expense, and certain legal and regulatory charges, as applicable.

Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define adjusted EBITDA margin as adjusted EBITDA divided by revenue.

We believe that adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin are key measures of our operating performance, and management uses these measures to formulate business plans, prepare budgets and forecasts, and make strategic decisions.

Transaction Profit

We define transaction profit as gross profit less transaction and risk losses.

Transaction Margin

We define transaction margin as transaction profit divided by revenue.

We believe that transaction profit and transaction margin are key measures of the incremental profit generated by member transactions.

Key Metrics

We use the following key metrics to help us evaluate our business and growth trends, establish budgets, evaluate the effectiveness of our investments, and assess operational efficiencies.

Active Members

We define an Active Member as a member who has initiated a money movement transaction on our platform in the last calendar month of the applicable period. Member-initiated money movement transactions include, but are not limited to, purchases with Chime-branded debit or credit cards, funding a member account, withdrawing funds from an ATM, sending or receiving funds with Pay Anyone, or taking or repaying a MyPay advance or an Instant Loan. Active Members are a key indicator of the scale of our engaged member base.

Average Revenue Per Active Member (“ARPAM”)

We define Average Revenue per Active Member (“ARPAM”) as revenue generated in the calendar quarter multiplied by four and divided by the average of the number of Active Members at the end of the prior quarter and the end of the current quarter. ARPAM is a key indicator of our ability to monetize member engagement, as it captures both the impact of payments revenue from Purchase Volume as well as the monetization of products that contribute to platform-related revenue.

Purchase Volume

We define Purchase Volume as the total dollar value of member purchase transactions using Chime-branded debit or credit cards during a given period, net of any adjustments or refunds. Purchase Volume is a key driver of payments revenue, because the interchange fees upon which our payments revenue is based are generally determined as a percentage of the underlying transaction value plus a fixed amount per transaction based upon rates set by the card networks. Purchase Volume is also a key indicator of aggregate member engagement. Purchase Volume does not include other types of transaction volumes such as deposits, ATM withdrawals, SpotMe and MyPay advances, Instant Loans, sending or receiving funds with Pay Anyone, outbound instant transfers, and other types of ACH or direct debit transfers.

CHIME FINANCIAL, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(unaudited)

March 31, 2026

December 31, 2025

Assets

Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents

607,677

466,252

Restricted cash

14,510

14,508

Marketable securities

403,605

587,828

Product collateral

231,477

251,204

Accounts receivable, net

294,338

257,884

Loans held for investment, net

105,815

71,581

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

86,839

106,753

Total current assets

1,744,261

1,756,010

Property, equipment and software, net

94,636

94,320

Operating lease right of use assets, net

81,078

83,429

Other assets

30,408

30,846

Total assets

1,950,383

1,964,605

Liabilities and stockholders❜ equity

Current liabilities:

Accounts payable

37,920

38,680

Accrued and other current liabilities

185,038

201,862

Product obligation

121,141

147,382

Total current liabilities

344,099

387,924

Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion

120,614

123,284

Other non-current liabilities

44,228

51,691

Total liabilities

508,941

562,899

Stockholders’ equity:

Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value: 100,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025

—

Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value: 5,000,000,000 shares authorized, 350,471,830 shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2026. 5,000,000,000 shares authorized, 347,751,083 issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2025

Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value: 65,000,000 shares authorized, 32,132,289 shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2026. 65,000,000 shares authorized, 32,182,289 issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2025

Class C common stock, $0.0001 par value: 500,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025

—

Additional paid-in capital

4,763,006

4,775,607

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

(947

)

172

Accumulated deficit

(3,320,648

)

(3,374,104

)

Total stockholders’ equity

1,441,442

1,401,706

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

1,950,383

1,964,605

CHIME FINANCIAL, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended March 31,

2026

2025

Revenue

647,387

518,744

Cost of revenue(1)

67,074

60,418

Gross profit

580,313

458,326

Operating expenses:

Transaction and risk losses

88,905

109,145

Member support and operations(2)

95,399

78,609

Sales and marketing(2)

165,431

132,573

Technology and development(2)

109,780

77,882

General and administrative(2)

70,467

47,173

Depreciation and amortization(1)

4,168

3,807

Total operating expenses

534,150

449,189

Income from operations

46,163

9,137

Other income, net

7,748

5,354

Income before income taxes

53,911

14,491

Provision for income taxes.

455

1,552

Net income

53,456

12,939

Undistributed earnings attributable to preferred stockholders

—

(12,939

)

Net income attributable to common stockholders

53,456

—

Net income per share attributable to common stockholders:

Basic

0.14

—

Diluted

0.13

—

Weighted average number of common shares outstanding used to compute net income per share attributable to common stockholders:

Basic

381,636,920

65,868,810

Diluted

400,476,567

65,868,810

__________________

Total depreciation and amortization includes amounts as follows:

Three Months Ended March 31,

(in thousands)

2026

2025

Depreciation and amortization recorded in cost of revenue

3,497

3,451

Depreciation and amortization recorded as operating expense

4,168

3,807

Total depreciation and amortization

7,665

7,258

Amounts include stock-based compensation and related payroll tax as follows:

Three Months Ended March 31,

(in thousands)

2026

2025

Member support and operations

8,936

1,124

Sales and marketing

4,593

483

Technology and development

27,425

3,703

General and administrative

23,862

3,386

Total stock-based compensation expense and related payroll tax

64,816

8,696

CHIME FINANCIAL, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended March 31,

2026

2025

Operating activities:

Net income

53,456

12,939

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:

Depreciation and amortization

7,665

7,258

Non-cash lease expense

2,351

1,534

Stock-based compensation

60,652

8,696

Provision for transaction dispute losses

22,327

17,971

Change in fair value of product obligation

(26,547

)

28,751

Provision for credit losses

14,534

23,549

Amortization of premium on marketable securities

(162

)

(1,627

)

Other

965

441

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

Product collateral

19,727

4,151

Accounts receivable, net

(37,679

)

(26,155

)

Prepaid expenses and other assets

19,972

(8,680

)

Accounts payable

(760

)

1,768

Accrued and other liabilities

(47,399

)

(73,954

)

Operating lease liabilities

(1,929

)

(3,937

)

Settlements of the product obligation

306

(18,456

)

Cash flows provided by (used in) operating activities

87,479

(25,751

)

Investing activities:

Purchase of marketable securities

—

(38,502

)

Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities

182,300

72,201

Purchases of loans held for investment

(1,296,434

)

(1,139,723

)

Repayments of loans held for investment

1,248,891

1,117,516

Purchase of property, equipment and software

(6,621

)

(1,593

)

Capitalization of internal-use software

(831

)

(3,198

)

Cash flows provided by investing activities

127,305

6,701

Financing activities:

Payment of debt issuance costs related to credit facilities

—

(843

)

Taxes paid related to net share settlement of restricted stock units

(1,540

)

—

Proceeds from exercise of stock options

13,923

717

Repurchases of common stock

(85,740

)

—

Cash flows used in financing activities

(73,357

)

(126

)

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash

141,427

(19,176

)

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, beginning of period

480,760

350,000

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, end of period

622,187

330,824

Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period

607,677

318,160

Restricted cash, end of the period

14,510

12,664

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, end of the period

622,187

330,824

Supplementary cash flow disclosure:

Cash paid for interest

280

165

Cash paid for income taxes, net of refunds received

Supplemental disclosures of noncash investing and financing activities:

Purchases of property, equipment and software in accounts payable

—

102

Unpaid debt issuance costs

—

508

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended March 31,

(in thousands, except percentages)

2026

2025

Gross profit

580,313

458,326

Gross margin

Adjusted for: Transaction and risk losses

88,905

109,145

Transaction profit

491,408

349,181

Transaction margin

Three Months Ended March 31,

(in thousands, except percentages)

2026

2025

Net income

53,456

12,939

Net margin

Adjusted for:

Depreciation and amortization expense

7,665

7,258

Other (income) expense, net(1)

(7,748

)

(5,354

)

Provision for income taxes

455

1,552

Stock-based compensation expense and related payroll tax

64,816

8,696

Adjusted EBITDA

118,644

25,091

Adjusted EBITDA margin

__________________

Relates primarily to interest income, which consists of interest and dividends earned on our cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities.

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