HSBC makes major change for customers as it axes | European Markets

HSBC is to close down its app Zing, a currency conversion service which allowed prospects to carry funds in over 10 totally different currencies, ship over 30 currencies, and transact in over 200 international locations and territories worldwide

Zing was launched a yr in the past by James Allan, HSBC’s head of FX and funds. It has partnerships with different fintech firms, together with Visa, Foreign money Cloud, and Tink.

Reuters reported that the choice to close down the business would end in 400 job losses.

An HSBC spokesperson mentioned: “Following a strategic review of Zing within the HSBC Group and after careful consideration, we have made the decision to close Zing and integrate its underlying technology platform into HSBC.”

Zing was supposed as a rival to Smart, a fintech set up in 2011. In November final yr it had practically 11.5 million prospects, a growth of 25% on the identical yr beforehand.

It additionally claimed to have carried out £68.4bn of transactions and held £18.5bn of prospects’ money.

Ritesh Jain, a former chief working officer at HSBC, instructed the fintech publication Finextra that Zing had copied rivals and didn’t have a future imaginative and prescient that may make it distinctive.

“In a market where consumers expect speed, transparency, and low-cost services, merely replicating existing offerings rarely works. Zing lacked a clear, innovative edge, and without that, no amount of marketing or expansion plans could help it succeed. Banks need to understand that in fintech, it’s not enough to compete in the present—you need to anticipate where the market is headed.” 

Jain added: “Zing’s failure underscores a broader issue: it wasn’t just about launching a product. It was about building something new within a legacy framework, managing risk-averse investors, and complying with evolving regulations—all while competing with nimble fintechs that aren’t weighed down by such challenges.”

Zing was the primary currency conversion and money switch app to be launched by a high avenue bank.

Rival Smart partnered with Swift whereas Revolut had labored with Visa to develop a cross-border business platform.

Funds Journal reported that during its first two months, solely 36,000 customers within the UK downloaded Zing, in response to app information intelligence platform Apptopia. As compared, Revolut and Smart noticed 1.1 million and 203,000 downloads, respectively, during that period of time. 

HSBC World Pockets, which provides a related service to Zing, nonetheless continues to operate, it added.