HSBC Holdings Plc is set to debut an international payments app aimed at directly challenging the dominance of fintechs like Revolut and Wise Plc that have gathered tens of millions of retail customers by offering cheap foreign exchange. Zing will initially be offered in the UK, but Europe’s largest bank is planning to roll out the service in other places in the coming months as it looks to grab a share of the fast-growing market servicing affluent consumers.
With an aim to take on firms that offer cross-border payments, HSBC Holdings plans to introduce a money-transfer app – Zing – in the coming days in the U.K. This was disclosed by Nuno Matos, CEO of the company’s Global Wealth and Personal Banking business, in an interview to Bloomberg News.
Matos stated in the interview, “We want to establish ourselves as a global platform for international payments, which ties perfectly with our international payments strategy for HSBC and you should see us very soon in Asia, in the Middle East and in EU markets.”
The app will be available on Apple’s Appstore as well as Google Play platform soon. The non-HSBC customers will also be able to use this app. Users will be able to store a maximum of 10 currencies in digital wallets with locked-in rates to make payments in local currencies. Also, they will be able to use more than 30 currencies to make payments globally with the help of a combination of local and Swift payments.
Zing will not function as a bank and is licensed as an e-money institution by the Financial Conduct Authority. The funds kept in Zing are not deposits and, hence, are not insured by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
HSBC already provides a fee-free multi-currency service to retail and wealth customers through Global Money. Launched in 2020, it attracted hundreds of thousands of customers and processed transactions worth approximately $11 billion in 2022.
Through Zing, HSBC intends to attract new clients, who may ultimately consider doing more business through the company. This effort is in sync with the company’s plan to become a leading financial institution for internationally mobile customers.
In 2023, shares of HSBC on the NYSE rallied 30.1%, outperforming the industry’s growth of 20.3%.
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