Chris Britt

Britt grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, a working-class city bordering the Bronx. In the founders’ letter to investors, he wrote that neither parent had graduated from college and that his upbringing exposed him to ordinary families’ financial difficulties.⁠[2]

In his PlaidPlaidPlaid is a financial technology company co-founded by Zach Perret and William Hockey and headquartered in San Francisco. It provides infrastructure connecting financial accounts with applications, with products spanning account verification, payments, lending and fraud prevention, and develops AI models for financial transactions. A planned acquisition by Visa was terminated in 2021.Open the full entry interview, he recalled being the third child, his parents divorcing when he was about four, and living with his mother and two older siblings. His early jobs included shoveling snow, delivering newspapers and working at Baskin-Robbins.⁠[3]

Britt graduated from Tulane University in 1995 with a BA in history and a minor in economics.⁠[4]

His career included management strategy consulting at Accenture, business-development vice president roles at Flycast Communications and CMGI, vice president and general manager at ComScore, and senior product leadership at VisaVisaVisa Inc. is one of the world’s leaders in digital payments, with roots going back to 1958, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.Open the full entry.⁠[4]

He was Green Dot’s chief product officer from 2007 to 2010 and senior vice president of corporate development from 2010 to 2012.⁠[5]

Britt and Ryan King co-founded ChimeChimeU.S. financial technology company offering accounts, payments and related services through partner banks, founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King.Open the full entry in 2012. The company provides consumer financial services through bank partnerships. His board biography records that he has served as CEO and chairman since its founding.⁠[5]

The founders’ letter described a payments-led model built around primary accounts receiving payroll direct deposits and a proprietary platform intended to reduce service costs. It also recalled investor skepticism during the company’s difficult first five years.⁠[2]

In a public letter titled Black Lives Matter, Britt opposed racism and said he and his leadership team had donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and were matching employee donations. Separately, the letter announced a $100,000 company donation and up to $150,000 in matching donations made by members through Chime debit cards in June.⁠[6]

Chime’s April 2025 account said that assistance from a neighbor with Britt’s early education inspired him to launch the Chime Scholars Foundation in 2023 for college, trade-school and technical education. It reported nearly 600 scholarship recipients by then, including 438 receiving over $2 million in 2024–2025, and a company commitment of 1% of potential future equity. Britt also serves on the foundation’s board.⁠[7][8]

On March 12, 2024, Britt received Tulane’s Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Albert Lepage Center gala at the Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans. Presenters included President Michael Fitts and Britt’s nephew Clayton Britt, a member of Tulane’s class of 2025 and a Lepage Center student fellow.⁠[4]

On May 7, 2024, the CFPB issued an order against Chime Financial after finding thousands of account-closure refunds not returned within 14 days, including delays beyond 90 days. It required compliance changes, a $3.25 million civil penalty and at least $1.3 million in consumer redress. The action concerned the company and does not establish a personal penalty or criminal conviction against Britt.⁠[9]

On May 29, 2024, Britt joined Paul Stamas, General AtlanticGeneral AtlanticGeneral Atlantic is a global investment firm founded in 1980 that grew out of Chuck Feeney’s family investment business. Growth equity is at its core, and through GA Credit, BeyondNetZero and Actis it also invests in credit, the energy transition and infrastructure. As of June 30, 2026, its assets under management across all strategies were about $130 billion.Open the full entry’s head of financial services, for season two, episode six of its podcast. The investor-produced program’s published outline covered Chime’s origins, fee-free business model, customer community and brand development.⁠[10]

On April 7, 2025, Tulane announced Britt’s appointment to the Board of Tulane, its principal governing body. He also serves on CoachArt’s board; the nonprofit connects children with chronic illnesses to free arts and athletics lessons.⁠[11]

Chime became publicly traded on NasdaqNasdaqNasdaq is an exchange operator and financial technology company headquartered in New York. It runs The Nasdaq Stock Market and other markets and provides capital markets technology, regulatory technology, and data and index services. Founded in 1971, it combined with OMX AB in 2008, and in March 2026 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved its rules for trading tokenized securities.Open the full entry on June 12, 2025, under the ticker CHYM.⁠[12]

Chime’s 2026 proxy statement identified him as Christopher Britt and recorded his age as 53 on March 31, 2026; it did not provide a full birth date in that disclosure.⁠[1]

On September 8, 2026, Chime announced an agreement to acquire longtime partner Stride Bank for $590 million in cash. Britt said combining Chime’s brand and primary-account relationships with the bank’s charter and team would accelerate product development. Closing was expected in the first half of 2027, subject to OCC and Federal ReserveFederal Reserve SystemThe Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. Created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, it consists of the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).Open the full entry approval and other conditions; the bank would then be renamed Chime Bank and become a wholly owned subsidiary.⁠[13]

His wife, Alexandra Zion Britt, also known as Alex Britt, earned a BA in economics from Tulane in 1996. Britt singled out her support for his entrepreneurship in his 2024 award acceptance remarks.⁠[11][4]

On A Tale of Two Banks, the first episode of Plaid’s podcast hosted by Zach PerretZach PerretZach Perret is a fintech entrepreneur who co-founded the financial data network company Plaid with William Hockey in 2013 and serves as its chief executive; Visa agreed to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion in 2020, but the deal was terminated in January 2021 after the US Department of Justice sued to block it.Open the full entry, Britt advocated financial AI that explains proposed actions and obtains user assent. He recommended Frank Slootman’s Amp It Up, emphasizing talent standards, initiative and entrepreneurial spirit.⁠[3]