Chime’s IPO Proves Data Still Wins in Banking

Three years ago, we wrote about data being the most valuable asset banks had to strengthen customer relationships. We pointed to Chime — not a bank, but certainly banking-adjacent — as the canary in the coal mine. While community banks were untangling month-end reports, Chime was out-acquiring the rest of the industry. Not because of its charter, but because of its customer data and insights.

Fast forward to June 2025: Chime IPOs at an $11.6 billion valuation. Their revenue climbed to $1.67 billion in 2024. Losses tightened. Products expanded. Customers? Still signing up by the millions. And they did it without a banking license.

Let that sink in.

Not a bank…but pretty good at “banking”

Chime’s filing made many things apparent, one being that the company isn’t just serving lower-income customers anymore. It’s now targeting customers earning under $200,000 — the same future customer base community banks count on to be a high-net-worth or even ultra-high-net-worth customer in the next 30-40 years. These are the young professionals who need a car loan today but a mortgage, financial advisor, or elder care savings account tomorrow.

But why have Chime’s offerings been so sticky with customers? Because they tackle products and services (legacy and uncovered) that specific customer segment needs: the ability to stretch a paycheck (early wage access), build credit (Credit Builder), save without thinking (roundups). The takeaway isn’t to bolt on roundups to every transaction; it’s to pinpoint your customers’ needs, wants, and experiences they can’t live without.

Chime calls it a flywheel: better insights drive better products, which deepen relationships, which generate more insights. What began with early wage access and fee-free overdrafts now hints at a roadmap that includes retail investing, healthcare savings, even small business services. Because when you actually understand a customer’s financial behavior, you know what they need before they ask.

Community banks know their customers. But they can’t see them.

Community banks already have the relationships. The trust. The balance sheets. What they often lack is the ability to see the full story hiding in plain sight — transaction data.

That’s where tools like Transactional Intelligence come in.

Our Transactional Intelligence module gives banks the same visibility Chime built in-house. But with a major difference: it does so inside your existing infrastructure, using the data you already have. It flags third-party mortgage payments, external investment activity, spending patterns that suggest a significant event in a customer’s life.

The result? Frontline staff empowered with context: which customers are growing their wallet share elsewhere? Who’s worth a call before the next rate ad? Where is your deposit leakage really coming from? And that visibility isn’t just about retention — it’s a revenue opportunity. For example, recapturing just a fraction of ACH and card volume currently flowing through third-party processors could generate over $1 million in low-risk, fee-based income annually, while also deepening operating account relationships.

You’re not hiring a team of 100 data scientists. You’re unlocking the intelligence already in your core and enabling your team to scale without additional resources.

Chime turned enriched transaction data into product-market fit. Community banks can do the same — and do it with the added advantage of in-person relationships and regulatory trust.

You don’t need to be Chime. But you do need to think like it.

The takeaway isn’t to mimic Chime. It’s to recognize that real-time data isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation of modern financial strategy. If Chime is winning the future affluent by helping them budget better at 30, what are banks doing to meet those same customers where they are — today?

It’s important to note that Chime’s success wasn’t just a function of good products — it was their ability to turn insights into institutional learning. The real opportunity for banks isn’t in mimicking fintechs, but in building engines that learn faster, adapt quicker, and serve deeper. That’s how momentum compounds.

Waiting for life stage changes to trigger product conversations is no longer enough. The flywheel is spinning. Chime’s already in motion. Community banks have the same fuel. They just need the tools to turn it into momentum.

That’s what KlariVis was built for.

Give your teams visibility. Give your customers relevance. Start competing with insight, not hindsight.