Can neobanks’ popularity outlast the pandemic?

“WHAT DO YOU think we are, a bank?” scoffs an advertisement for Current, a neobank, on New York’s subway. It goes on to paint bank branches, poor customer service and overdraft fees as relics. The company is one of a hundred-odd “neobanks” vying to shake up retail banking in America, and which have exploded in size and number in the past year. On August 13th Chime, the country’s biggest neobank, raised a round of funding that valued it at $25bn—about the same as America’s 13th largest listed bank.