HSBC has moved 3000 members of its staff into a new building and are viewing this digital group differently than their core suit-and-tie employees; the bank believes separating them out will better help to fuel new innovative ideas; HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver said, "To survive for 150 years we've had to evolve. Most of the risk we've dealt with is political. Actually what's happening in the digital space is there is a threat, particularly to retail banking... in payments, in wealth management." Source
HSBC is planning to hire 1,000 new Asian wealth management operations employees; the announcement is part of a cost cutting initiative which has closed 60 branches in the UK and moved 200 IT-related jobs to Asia; the newly added employees will primarily be focused on Chinese retail banking and wealth management, adding to a team of 2,400 employees. Source
HSBC is looking to test the new app to help in preparation for the coming open banking regulations; the app will allow customers to look at all their accounts including loans from 21 different banks; Becky Moffat, head of personal banking and advice at HSBC, tells Banking Technology “Through our Beta app we want to give our customers a complete and joined-up view of their financial life.” Source.
Finastra, R3 and seven global banks are teaming up to build a blockchain based marketplace for syndicated loans; banks include BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, HSBC, ING and State Street; Fusion LenderComm, which uses R3's Corda platform, will be able to handle real-time credit agreements, accrual balances, position information and transaction data. Source.
The partnership is with Bud through first direct and will offer an integrated offering of financial services products and tools across the market; Raman Bhatia stated, “At HSBC we recognise that the sector needs to innovate to meet changing customer needs and we’re investing significantly in digital innovation, including working in partnership with fintechs such as Bud” Source
HSBC has shared insight from the development of its HSBC SmartSave app which it developed within the Financial Conduct Authority's Regulatory Sandbox initiative in partnership with Pariti; the app provides personal finance management services using algorithms and four customer plans; overall the app has proved successful, saving customers 63.17 British pounds ($78.80) per month; of the four service plans HSBC reported "Rounding Up" to be the most popular, allowing customers to round up purchases to save spare change on transactions. Source
HSBC has announced a partnership with Tradeshift that will connect the Tradeshift network of companies to working capital lending at HSBC; Tradeshift has over 1.5 million companies on its platform; it offers HSBC the advantage of seeing the whole supply chain which can add insight for lending decisions; the partnership follows a significant investment in Tradeshift by HSBC last year; Business Insider also notes other fintech bank partnerships and the increasing interest from banks to partner with fintechs for innovative solutions. Source
A consortium of banks including OCBC Bank, HSBC and MUFG along with Infocomm Media Development Authority completed a KYC blockchain proof of concept; the development can make KYC more secure and efficient, as well as help to crack down on money laundering. Source.
During a panel discussion at LendIt Europe in London representatives from leading incumbent lenders Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), ING, BBVA, HSBC, and Barclays discussed the challenges faces in the new digital world; topics discussed include cultural transformation, more power in the customers hands and trying to stay on top of the latest tech trends. Source.
HSBC intends to launch a new product in 2018 to address problems they see in the automated investment market; the new product is dubbed robo-advising 2.0 by Dean Butler, HSBC’s head of retail wealth; it will provide holistic financial advice and will eventually include recommendations for other products such as pensions and insurance. Source