By
Mayowa Adebajo
March 27th, 2024
HSBC already provides an online investment advice service in the UK. However, with a new feature, HSBC could efficiently compete against other financial tech firms, such as FreeTrade and Revolut.
On Wednesday, British multinational banking and financial services holding company HSBC Holdings Plc (NYSE: HSBC) announced a new investing feature to update its app. According to the company, the new investing feature will allow people to invest in ready-made funds. Customers will need to invest a minimum of £50 ($66.62) to be eligible. It is not yet clear when HCBS will roll out the feature, but it is known that it targets young investors in their 18-34 with a ‘want it now’ attitude to investing.
James Hewitson, head of wealth management at HSBC UK, commented:
“Around 389,000 of our customers aged under 35 have sufficient assets to invest but are currently not doing so. On top of that, 64% of HSBC customers are digitally active.”
He further added:
“Our online advice service, HSBC My Investment, already provides an accessible and low-cost route to investing for novices. With the addition of mobile, we’re offering more opportunities for savers to try out investing and make their money work harder.”
HSBC already provides an online investment advice service in the UK. However, with a new feature, HSBC could efficiently compete against other financial tech firms, such as FreeTrade and Revolut.
HSBC Enhancing Its Business
Back in October, HSBC released a Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform to enable customers to create and provide business banking services through their own platforms through the cloud ERP system Oracle NetSuite. The platform embeds international payments and expense management services into NetSuite’s SuiteBanking solution to allow NetSuite customers to automate accounts payable, accounts receivable, and reconciliation processes.
Currently, HSBC is also considering the integration of BaaS into HSBC Global Wallet, its multi-currency digital wallet for making and receiving international payments.
This year, HSBC also partnered with global cards manufacturer IDEMIA to introduce sustainable payment cards across all its global locations. There are HSBC’s debit, credit, and commercial cards included in the initiative. By the end of 2026, HSBC is planning to eliminate single-use PVC plastic in favor of recycled PVC plastic (rPVC). As a result, the bank will reduce its carbon emissions and achieve net-zero in its operations and supply chain. Based on the current volume of cards issued by HSBC per year (23 million), the move to rPVC will reduce CO2 emissions by 161 tonnes a year.
It is expected that HSBC new investing feature will attract more clients to the company’s database. Besides, it will add to its profit. In the last quarter, HSBC showed an impressive 75.8% increase in pre-tax profit to $5.4 billion from the same period a year ago. Amid this, HSBC was planning to buy back about $2 billion of its shares.