By Blake Brittain

June 3 (Reuters) - Consumer intelligence firm J.D. Power has sued financial technology company Chime CHYM.O in New York federal court for making allegedly false claims that it holds a number-one ranking in a J.D. Power survey.

J.D. Power said in the complaint filed on Tuesday that Chime improperly marketed itself as being "America’s #1 choice for banking" by misrepresenting a J.D. Power study that tracked bank account openings.

The lawsuit said that J.D. Power "never conferred any '#1 ranking' on Chime and never endorsed Chime’s advertising claim."

A Chime spokesperson said that the complaint "presents a selective and incomplete characterization of the facts," and that its advertising is supported by data from J.D. Power and others.

Spokespeople and attorneys for J.D. Power did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint on Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Chime's banking model targets customers with limited credit histories. It posted its first-ever quarterly profit last month.

J.D. Power said that Chime made unsupported claims that it holds a "#1 ranking based on [a] J.D. Power survey" by citing a study that "did not measure overall consumer preference, satisfaction, loyalty, or primacy in banking."

J.D. Power said that the study tracked new account openings across eight categories, and that Chime led only one of the categories.

"Chime’s selective reliance on a single favorable metric to support a broad 'America’s #1 Choice for Banking' tagline ignores the data in the very same study that contradicts the claim, as well as other J.D. Power research showing that Chime’s competitors have more total customers and accounts," the lawsuit said.

J.D. Power asked the court to block Chime's allegedly misleading advertising and requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

The case is J.D. Power v. Chime Financial Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:26-cv-04656.

For J.D. Power: Georges Nahitchevansky, Brian Bianco and Julia Lissner of Akerman

For Chime: attorney information not yet available