Chime said Tuesday it will acquire Enid, Oklahoma-based Stride Bank for $590 million in cash, a move that converts one of the fintech's longest-standing bank partners into a wholly owned subsidiary to be called Chime Bank, N.A. The deal matters because it gives Chime direct control over a national bank charter, which the company says will allow it to build products faster, shed partner banking fees, reduce funding costs, and more efficiently expand its lending business. CEO Chris Britt framed the decision as a matter of timing rather than direction: “The opportunity for us to actually own a charter was really not a matter of if, it was just when.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to approvals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve. Stride, founded in 1913, has about $5.4 billion in assets and branch locations in Oklahoma and Salt Lake City. Brud Baker, Stride's chairman and CEO, will continue to lead Chime Bank after closing. Chime said the deal is projected to be accretive to earnings “immediately upon closing,” with roughly $100 million in expected net synergies, largely from eliminating sponsor bank fees, expanding lending products, and a “significantly lower” cost of funds. The purchase price represents about 1.5 times Stride's tangible book value, and Chime expects to fund it from cash on its balance sheet.
Chime also raised its financial guidance alongside the announcement. Second-quarter revenue rose 27% year over year to $670 million, with $28 million in net income. The company now projects third-quarter revenue of $705 million, up about 30% year over year, and full-year revenue between $2.76 billion and $2.77 billion, a 26%–27% increase. Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani called the acquisition an “efficient way to drive vertical integration, creating expense and funding upside,” and shares of Chime rose as much as 11% in after-hours trading in New York, according to American Banker. Banking Dive reported that Chime had about 10.4 million active members as of the second quarter and that Chime accounts are already a significant contributor to Stride's deposits.
The acquisition has broader implications for the fintech-banking landscape. By buying rather than applying for a de novo charter, Chime avoids a period of holding excess capital that could have limited growth, William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey noted. However, the deal carries execution risk: Stride has multiple fintech partners, including Affirm, and a much broader book of business. Jeffrey wrote that “M&A; is hard, even when the strategic rationale is compelling.” Chime said it will consolidate banking activities at Stride while keeping assets below $10 billion for the foreseeable future, a threshold that triggers additional regulatory requirements. Truist Securities analyst Brian Finneran cautioned that staying under $10 billion while growing “looks tough” given Chime's roughly $40 billion per quarter of debit volume and combined assets already near $7 billion, especially if average account size is capped around $1,000.
Several limitations remain. The dossier does not specify how Chime will manage Stride's existing fintech partnerships or whether any of those relationships will be wound down. It is also unclear how Chime will keep assets below the $10 billion threshold while scaling its lending ambitions, beyond Finneran's suggestion that it may sell loans more quickly or trim existing business lines. Regulatory approval is not guaranteed, and the first-half 2027 closing timeline leaves room for conditions or delays. What to watch: whether Chime discloses a concrete asset-management plan, how Stride's other partners respond, and whether regulators impose any conditions on the combined entity's growth or capital structure.