HSBC takes on Revolut, Wise with new forex app for non-customers
- HSBC plans an international payments app which will compete with those offered by Revolut and Wise targeting retail customers by offering cheap foreign exchange
- The move shows how some global financial giants are seeking to compete against a slew of start-ups that offer a range of services on mobile devices
HSBC Holdings is set to debut an international payments app aimed at directly challenging the dominance of fintechs like Revolut and Wise 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.
The app will be available on Apple’s Appstore and Alphabet’s Google Play platform within days and will be open to non-HSBC customers as the bank prepares to “attack” the worldwide retail payments market, according to Nuno Matos, chief executive officer of the lender’s global wealth and personal banking business. Matos said it would take about three minutes for a new user to sign up.
“Zing has a global ambition,” Matos said in an 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 move shows how some global financial giants are seeking to compete against a slew of start-ups that have rapidly expanded over the past decade by offering services ranging from cross-border payments to savings accounts and investing products on mobile devices.
