Chime IPO: CFO explains what separates fintech firm from banks

Yahoo

21 hours ago

Chime Financial (CHYM) begins trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday, a positive signal for the initial public offering (IPO) market and the consumer-facing fintech space.
Chime CFO Matt Newcomb joins Wealth with Allie Canal to discuss why the company chose now to go public, what sets Chime apart from traditional banks, consumer spending, and more.
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Financial tech company Chime is making its public debut today on the Nasdaq priced at $27 a share. The IPO values the company at $11.6 billion, a sharp drop from its last private valuation of $25 billion just a few years ago. This debut will be a key test for investor appetite of consumer-facing fintech names within an otherwise sluggish IPO market. Chime offers fee-free banking via a mobile app including checking and savings accounts, debit and credit builder cards and high-yield savings all without monthly fees, overdraft fees or minimum balance requirements. Joining us now to talk through the company's journey to the public markets is Chime CFO Matt Newcomb. So Matt, congrats on the IPO. You guys are not trading just yet, but let's first start why now was the right time for you guys to go public.
Yeah, thank you for having me, Allie. It's great to be here. This is obviously an amazing day for Chime. It's amazing for our nearly 1,500 Chimers, but more importantly, this is an amazing day for our members. And we think this really marks what we believe to be a generational shift in the way that everyday members are being banked in this country.
You priced above range at $27 a share but you're still valued below what you were a few years ago. What do you think that, why do you think that was? What what do you account for that shift?
Yes, my philosophy on this is you can control what you can control. Markets come and markets go. What we can control is being focused on our mission and building our business. That's what we've been focused on since day one of this company. That's what we're going to be focused on here going forward as well. And we believe we've got a generational opportunity to build a new business that banks everyday Americans in an aligned way that's actually helping them make progress on their financial lives.
Let's talk about some of that opportunity. You guys are not profitable at this point. What's the path to profitability? How long do you think you can, it it will take to get there?
Yeah, we've I think got a very unique business model at Chime. Even though we are in the business of offering bank accounts, our business not model is not very bank-like. Instead you should think about Chime is really a payments-driven company. And because of our members' deep engagement with Chime and the way that they habitually use us to pay for their everyday expenses, this is a recurring payments business. We've been investing in exciting growth opportunities for the company. We've made tremendous progress in our profitability over the last couple of years. And it's really the strong unit economics in our business that drives our performance.
Like you were saying, your model relies on interchange fees rather than those traditional banking fees. How sustainable is that though as you scale and now face pressure from investors now that you're publicly traded company?
We love this model. We love this model because it is again aligned with our members. We only win as long as we are earning the trust of our members to serve as their primary account. More specifically, when our members are using us as their top of wallet card to pay for their everyday spend. And the reason that's aligned is when you compare that to the way that the incumbent banking system serves everyday consumers. This is not coming on the backs of our members. Our products are largely free, and it's helping them get ahead in many areas of their financial lives.
And the average chime customer is 36 years old. What are you seeing that there from that demographic when it comes to spending, saving and adoption of digital banking?
Our members look a lot like America. They represent where Americans work. The the biggest industries that employ Americans like healthcare, retail, restaurants. It's really the heart and soul of what makes up this great country. And they've trusted Chime to be their primary banking relationship to help them across many areas of their financial lives, whether that's spending, saving, borrowing and perhaps other areas in the future as well.
And your first day on the markets. Can you just talk to me about the journey that it's taken to get here and what it means to you as a CFO?
Like this has been certainly a journey starting from some of the earlier days when we were just a small company looking to, but with a big mission looking to to make progress. It's incredible to see the progress that we've made at this company. At the same time, we feel like this is just day one. We are serving 8.5 million Americans in a market of roughly 200 million Americans. And so there's lots more ahead for chime for sure.
Lots more ahead. And it's it's also an interesting environment right now with interest rates high, a lot of uncertainty. How are you preparing for potential changes in consumer spending behavior?
I think what's really unique about our business is again because our members use chime to pay for their everyday expenses, our payments business is very concentrated in non-discretionary spend. And that tends to be resilient regardless of the macro cycle. And I think there's been a lot of headlines about, you know, worries about the economy and macro. What we see is we see a resilient consumer spending and a lot of behavior on our platform very much in line with what we would expect.
A resilient consumer. That's a great way to end it. Matt, thank you so much and congrats again on the IPO.
Thank you for having me.