How Chime Became America's Biggest Digital Bank
- 5 days ago
For decades, it’s been a riddle in banking: how do you build a sustainable and profitable business serving low and middle-income consumers? Sixteen years ago, Chris Britt, then chief product officer at Green Dot, believed he’d discovered the answer—direct deposit of paychecks.
Green Dot was selling prepaid debit cards to cash-strapped Americans without traditional bank accounts, and Britt saw that customers who had their paychecks automatically deposited into their Green Dot accounts used the card to pay virtually all their expenses. With each debit card swipe, Green Dot pocketed part of the interchange fees–the 1% to 2% charge merchants pay to accept debit and credit cards.
“The people on direct deposit were clearly the whales of the business,” says Britt, 51, the cofounder and CEO of Chime, the nation’s largest digital-only bank with $1.5 billion in annualized revenue and seven million customers using its cards for $8 billion a month in transactions.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2024/05/03/exclusive-the-inside-story-of-chime-americas-biggest-digital-bank/?sh=4f40891cfb0d
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Green Dot was selling prepaid debit cards to cash-strapped Americans without traditional bank accounts, and Britt saw that customers who had their paychecks automatically deposited into their Green Dot accounts used the card to pay virtually all their expenses. With each debit card swipe, Green Dot pocketed part of the interchange fees–the 1% to 2% charge merchants pay to accept debit and credit cards.
“The people on direct deposit were clearly the whales of the business,” says Britt, 51, the cofounder and CEO of Chime, the nation’s largest digital-only bank with $1.5 billion in annualized revenue and seven million customers using its cards for $8 billion a month in transactions.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2024/05/03/exclusive-the-inside-story-of-chime-americas-biggest-digital-bank/?sh=4f40891cfb0d
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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