The banking giant HSBC has announced the launch of Zing, a new international payments app aimed at competing with fintech leaders, such as Revolut and Wise. In recent years, neobank apps have taken a significant slice of the payment pie from traditional institutions. However, it turns out that the giants have not yet had their final say and want to attract customers again, especially from the youngest generations.

HSBC Takes On Fintech Rivals with New Forex App

The Zing app will initially debut in the UK before expanding to other regions in the coming months. According to information from Bloomberg, it will be available within days on the App Store and Google Play.

HSBC is looking to take a share of the rapidly expanding cross-border payments market that has seen huge growth from startups like Revolut and Wise. These fintech firms have attracted tens of millions of retail customers globally by offering low-cost foreign exchange and money transfer services through mobile apps. The latest financial report of Revolut for 2022 confirms this, showing an increase of 45% in revenue to $1.1 billion.

Zing will not be limited to only HSBC customers; other individuals will also be able to use the app. The process of setting up an account is expected to take less than three minutes, and HSBC aims to make Zing a "global platform."

Nuno Matos, the CEO of HSBC's global banking unit, said the bank is ready to "attack" the retail forex space. "We want to establish ourselves as a global platform for international payments."

Initially, he expects Zing will appeal to new customers outside HSBC's traditional base ,but Matos hopes it will attract new banking customers to HSBC over time.

Building on Existing Offerings

Is the competition feeling the pressure from the banking giant? There are strong indications that they are. Wise's shares dropped by over 7% on Tuesday in response to the news of a significant new competitor entering the space.

Zing is building on HSBC's Global Money product that provides fee-free currency exchange . Global Money has already seen strong growth, processing $11 billion in transactions in 2022. HSBC is hoping Zing will accelerate its goal of becoming the top financial institution for globally mobile retail customers. The launch shows legacy banks taking the fintech competition seriously by leveraging their large customer bases and global footprint.

In other FX-related developments, HSBC has successfully completed a trial, reportedly the first of its kind globally, utilizing quantum key distribution (QKD) technology. The QKD approach is designed to secure highly sensitive financial data.