A $590 million cash deal for Stride Bank's parent, at about 1.5 times tangible book, turns Chime's charter partner into Chime Bank, N.A.
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Chime Financial has agreed to acquire Central Service Corp., the parent of Stride Bank, for $590 million in cash, roughly 1.5 times tangible book value, according to Chime's own announcement. The bank would operate as Chime Bank, N.A. Chime has said the transaction should produce more than $100 million in net synergies. Closing is targeted for the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Stride is not an outside acquisition. It is Chime's existing charter partner, which is what makes the deal structurally interesting rather than merely additive. Consumer fintechs without bank charters rent them, and the arrangement has two costs that do not appear on an income statement in an obvious way. The first is economic, because interchange and deposit revenue is shared with the partner bank. The second is control, because the fintech carries the consequences of its partner's compliance posture, examination outcomes and risk appetite without setting any of them.
Buying the charter addresses both at once. Revenue that was shared becomes owned. Compliance that was supervised at one remove becomes Chime's direct responsibility under bank regulation, which is a real increase in obligation and also the thing that removes a standing dependency on a third party's regulatory standing.
The $100 million synergy figure is Chime's own and has not been broken out between the interchange economics it recaptures, funding-cost improvement on deposits it would now hold directly, and cost elimination. Those three sources have very different durability, and the composition matters more than the total.
The 1.5 times tangible book price is the other item worth watching. That is a full price for a small charter bank on conventional bank-valuation terms, which is consistent with Chime paying for the charter and the relationship rather than for the balance sheet. Whether it is a good price depends entirely on the synergy composition the company has not yet detailed.
Regulatory approval is the gate, and the first-half-2027 target implies a review of several quarters. Approval filings with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve are where the deal's substance, including any conditions attached to Chime operating a national bank, will actually become visible.