蘑菇AV

The news: Fintech giant Chime beat Wall Street estimates in its first quarterly revenue reporting as a public company, driven by strong demand for its digital banking services, per Reuters. Our first take: Chime's impressive debut as a public company is a powerful statement about the shifting dynamics of consumer banking. For years, traditional banks have dismissed challenger banks as a fringe trend. But Chime's financial performance proves there's a huge, profitable market for digital-first financial services. In addition, Chime鈥檚 focus on short-term liquidity tools and early pay access has positioned it as a valuable financial partner, especially as consumers are faced with pressing economic concerns.

This could give Chime access to more Gen Alpha and Gen Z customers.

It would also be a reminder for FIs to innovate new ways to break down banking barriers for target customers鈥攖aking a cue from Chime, which has already figured out how to make banking basics like securing loans easier. Our take: We can鈥檛 forget the challenges Chime still faces, including potential difficulties targeting the higher-income customers who would make it more profitable.

However, companies like Rocket Money, Chime, and Credit Karma have been prioritizing and using bill and subscription management to:. Drive frequent engagement through alerts and personalized insights. Gather data on spending habits and external accounts to fuel cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Offer targeted financial products at the right time (e.g., refinance offers, credit upgrades).

Early access to paychecks: Many FIs and fintechs offer this feature, like Chime, which has become synonymous with getting paychecks early. The product has boosted Chime鈥檚 growth and brand recognition since it ran its 鈥淓arly Payday鈥� campaign in 2018, per Little Black Book.

Creators chime in: Spotify鈥檚 Partner Program is attracting independent creators faster than podcast networks. Half of YouTube鈥檚 top 10 most-watched podcasts have already joined the program, Digiday notes, while larger network shows have held off to preserve dynamic ad revenues that make up a large chunk of their monetization. Still, the upside is hard to ignore for video-first creators.

Bank, Bank of America, and fintech giant Chime. But JPMorgan鈥檚 plan, which focuses on the importance of building human connections and curated, personalized experiences, may resonate particularly well with these target customers. However, all banks in this space face the added challenge of assuaging affluent customers鈥� economic anxieties.

Chime lowered the barriers for personal loans. Revolut鈥檚 new ATMs could take a swipe at a major competitive advantage held by traditional financial institutions (FIs). Gen Z鈥檚 top factors in choosing where to bank include their proximity to an FI鈥檚 ATMs and branches.

Stride Bank is an Oklahoma-based community bank with other large fintech tie-ups, like Chime. Affirm will maintain its partnership with its existing issuer, Evolve Bank, as well. Why it鈥檚 doing this: The decision to add a new issuing partner is likely part of Affirm鈥檚 efforts to grow its debit card.

The EU chimes in to the AI copyright debate: A rule proposed by European regulators would remove legal gray areas around how AI is trained.

The news: Klarna is pivoting toward digital banking in the US, preparing for its IPO amid growing scrutiny of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) market. This includes launching US debit cards and expanded savings offerings, with Klarna rebranding itself as a neobank aiming for a "super app" experience. Our take: This signals a broader trend of fintechs evolving into banks, intensifying pressure on traditional financial institutions (FIs) to differentiate. FIs must clarify their niche, pursue strategic scale, and accelerate digital transformation. Despite Klarna's expansion, FIs retain a key advantage: their card-based installment plans still outperform BNPL in customer satisfaction.

It also discontinued its Appstore on Android devices and killed its Chime business communications service, pushing customers to use Zoom and Microsoft 365 instead. Amazon retail CEO Doug Herrington urged employees to find savings while pursuing big opportunities, per Business Insider. Meta is also restructuring to free up capital for AI.

Varo Bank and Chime both offer free federal and state filing services through their apps, which could appeal especially to younger customers, per CNET and their websites. However, customers who meet certain income requirements can also file for free directly with the IRS.

For example, Chime took out a two-page ad in The New York Times, which has a readership that skews older, more educated, and wealthier than Chime鈥檚 current consumers. Brand messaging demonstrates a clear pivot to mainstream audiences:. Mercury has evolved its positioning from startup-specific ("The foundation startups bank on") to universal appeal ("Banking should do more. Now it can").

Editor鈥檚 note: An earlier version of this story previously misstated how many Chime users there are. Chime has 7 million users. 蘑菇AV regrets the error.

To learn more about using a non-branded keyword strategy like Chime, read this next.

Chime has three times as many followers as BofA and Chase, at 933,000.

Conducted on behalf of the neobank Chime, the survey sample was composed of 2,000 Americans evenly split by gender and generation. Why it matters: Managing cash remains a regular and mandatory part of a financial institution鈥檚 (FI鈥檚) day-to-day operations.

The biggest movers: Combined, Chime and PayPal scooped up 43% of digital bank/fintech account openings and 20% of all new checking accounts opened in 2023. In 2020, SoFi accounted for 1% of new account openings, but during H1 of 2023, SoFi鈥檚 market share quadrupled to 4%. That same year, Wells Fargo鈥檚 share was 8.1%, but so far this year, its share has dropped by more than a half to 3.5%.

Poshmark鈥檚 鈥淪hare Shows鈥� allow brands and Poshmark users to partner to sell products, while viewers can chime in with questions or comments, or place a bid. The events have been a hit for brands like Rothy鈥檚, Pact, and Christy Dawn, with Rothy鈥檚 CMO Jamie Gersch telling ModernRetail that the format 鈥渞eally let us engage the community in a way we hadn鈥檛 before.鈥�.

Bank, and other fintechs like Chime. However, Cash App fared far worse at attracting new accounts: Just 10.1% of consumers interested in a new account (out of 3,950 respondents) said they would consider using the fintech. Bank of America and Chase, by comparison, netted about 20%. What鈥檚 in a rating?