HSBC Announces Real-Time Payments Tool

Need to Know

• A new HSBC platform, Global Money Account, allows customers to transfer funds through a single account to 20 countries worldwide.
• Global Money Account holders can hold as many as eight different currencies and have access to preferential foreign exchange rates.
• The new function, which is available via HSBC’s mobile app, allows HSBC the ability to more closely compete with fintechs such as Transferwise, which offer similar services.

Analysis

HSBC has announced a new tool that allows its clients to make real-time global payments, as digital commerce continues to be a priority for customers of the multinational bank.

Global Money Account, which HSBC first announced in early November and is now live, allows HSBC customers to transfer funds through a single account to 20 countries worldwide. The tool, said Carolyn Criscitiello, head of digital payments, wealth and personal banking at HSBC USA, will allow clients who move from one market to another to continue to issue payments from an existing account, where previously the opening of a new account may have been necessary.

“The ambition for Global Money Account is to provide our customers with one global account for all of their financial needs,” she said. “This will allow them to pay bills in multiple markets, make cross border transfers and spend like a local wherever they are.”

In order to open a Global Money Account, a customer needs to have an eligible HSBC deposit account, which will be linked to the Global Money Account, and must be a resident of the United States, Argentina, Armenia, Chile, Isle of Man, Switzerland, Uruguay or Venezuela. Global Money Account is mobile-only, so users must have access to the HSBC mobile app, as well.

Global Money Account holders can hold as many as eight foreign currencies—United States Dollar, Euro, Sterling, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, and Singapore Dollar—and have access to preferential foreign exchange rates. The account will allow HSBC to be more competitive with fintechs such as Transferwise, which already offers international money transfer options.

According to Matthias Dekan, head of HSBC Global Money, HSBC Group, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a 150% increase in mobile banking. Indeed, the announcement of Global Money Account is just the latest move from a major bank to accommodate the global pandemic-born transition from in-person to digital banking. In September, for instance, TD announced the improved TD Global Transfer, which allowed customers to use EasyWeb online banking or the TD Canada app to securely send money to more than 200 countries and territories. American Express, meanwhile, recently expanded its partnership with payments processor Coupa, launching Coupa Pay in the US, while Mastercard increased its partnership with Marqueta, enabling that fintech to expand into new global regions.