HSBC launched the Zing money-transfer app in January 2024 and shut it a year later

HSBC launched Zing in the U.K. in January 2024 for HSBC and non-HSBC customers. The app let users hold up to 10 currencies, spend fee-free abroad in supported currencies and send transfers in about 30 currencies. Nuno Matos, then CEO of HSBC's global wealth and personal banking, told Bloomberg that Zing had global ambitions and would make HSBC a global platform for international payments.

HSBC built Zing on the technology of Monese, a U.K. fintech in which it invested $35 million in 2022, according to the Financial Times. HSBC wrote off its stake in Monese in 2024, and Pockit acquired Monese around the same time. Matos left HSBC in August 2024 after Georges Elhedery was named CEO, and Elhedery began a sweeping overhaul of the bank.

On January 28, 2025 HSBC told customers it would close Zing following a strategic review and fold the underlying technology into HSBC, citing group simplification to focus on areas of clear competitive advantage. A source told Reuters that investment in Zing had been decreasing under the new leadership, which saw further development as not worth the capital.

HSBC's new CEO launched a simplification program to focus on businesses where it had a clear competitive advantage, and Zing did not make the cut.

A source told Reuters management viewed further development of Zing as not worth the capital investment.

Matos, who had described Zing's global ambition, left the bank in August 2024, months after launch.

The app entered a market led by fintechs such as Wise, PayPal and Remitly with a platform built on a stake HSBC later wrote off.

A product tied to one executive's ambition is fragile. When leadership changed and priorities shifted, the app lost its capital after only a year.

Zing stopped accepting new applications; no new funds could be added after April 2, 2025, and the app shut on May 22. Existing customers were offered the option to become HSBC U.K. customers and use its global money account, subject to know-your-customer checks.