HSBC Announces $2bn Intention to be a “Digital-First Bank”
(5 November 2021 – Global) HSBC is investing $2b to turn into a ‘digital-first bank’ according to the bank’s chief executive of global commercial banking Barry O’Byrne.
O’Byrne discussed two things that HSBC is focusing on during his panel at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2021: building solutions for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and partnering with fintechs to create more digital banking products.
O’Byrne said that HSBC’s $2b investment over five years is just the start as they want this investment to be seen in every facet of their business as well as revolutionise how they interact with customers starting with SMEs
The SME focus was initiated from the success of HSBC Kinetic launched in the UK. HSBC Kinetic is a digital-only commercial bank which now has close to 20,000 customers.
“Rather than just being a bank account, it enables customers to understand their cash flow needs. It enables them to categorize invoices to have lending journeys that take minutes, as opposed to in the past, they would have taken days and weeks. Finance toward the future is really shifting. Additionally, we also recognize that if you think of SMEs, what they need more than anything is time and a product like Kinetic gives them time back because they can run it all through their mobile phone. Plus, it's cloud based so it's all in real time as well,” O’Byrne said.
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