UK bank HSBC has announced plans to roll out a new international payments platform.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the move is directly aimed at rivalling FinTechs like Wise and Revolut who are currently dominating the foreign exchange market.

It said that the new app, called Zing, will first be launched in the UK, with plans to expand to other locations over the coming months.

“Zing has a global ambition,” Nuno Matos, chief executive of HSBC's global wealth and personal banking business told the publication. “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.”

He continued: “It’s a bold move for us. This is HSBC playing outside of its traditional perimeter of customers, and really attacking, if you want, of taking advantage of a contingent, which is big, is growing, looks like us, and it’s here for us.”

The move comes after Wise reported a pre-tax profit rise of 280 per cent in the six months ended 30 September.

Profits before tax for the British FinTech stood at £193.4 million compared with £51.3 in the same period of 2022.

UK challenger bank Revolut also recently announced a milestone of 35 million global customers.

In October, the company said that the figure was up from 30 million in June, with the number of customers in Europe using Revolut as their primary account having grown by 90 per cent in the past year or so.

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