HSBC has shut down Zing, the currency conversion app that was intended to provide a viable competitor to money transfer behemoth Wise.
Launched to much fanfare in January last year, Zing was founded by the bank's head of FX and payments James Allan and was registered as an e-money institution. The app and accompanying debit card enabled users to hold funds in over 10 different currencies, send over 30 currencies, and transact in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Technology partners for the project included Visa, Currrency Cloud and Tink.
The decision to shut down the business is likely to trigger 400 job losses, according to reports from Reuters.
"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," a spokesperson for the bank says in a statement. "HSBC is focused on increasing leadership and market share in the areas where it has a clear competitive advantage, and where it has the greatest opportunities to grow and support our clients."
While incoming HSBC boss Georges Elhedery considered further investment in Zing as an inefficent use of capital, its direct competitor Wise has gone from strength to strength, piling on profits and customers. Its embedded banking platform is also making inroads in the banking sector, signing up large banking institutions like Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered.
Writing in a Finextra blog post, Ritesh Jain, former COO at HSBC, offers this perspective: "Zing’s attempt to compete directly with Wise and Revolut was essentially a “me-too” product, struggling to carve out a unique value proposition. 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."
He says that 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.