https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-20/hsbc-said…
https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2025/hsbc-reportedly-wei…
HSBC is reportedly considering a sale of its Australian consumer banking operation.
That’s one of the options before the British banking giant as it tries to pare down its business, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Jan. 20), citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
It's been the key reason why I'm happy to pay the paywave transaction fees.
can't really see the point of HSBC unless they buy out one the new-gen/app banks
Worldwide they charge extortion rates (much better to have revolut or similar new-gen banks). else Traditional banks can easily cover in Australia and Europe if need be.
Not really. HSBC is way better of a travel card than Revolut.
Revolut is ok for specific things but name me another card that wil charge you a "weekend fee" on top of their non-market FX.
This will be a loss of Australians who are expats.
have you seen HSBC's conversion rates for sending money?
also HSBC charges $30 if you choose to pay intermediary bank fees upfront.
sending $1000 USD:
Revolut Standard: $1607.79
Wise: $1612.17
HSBC: $1638.27 + $30
Why send when you can withdraw for free at near middle market rates. You cannot withdraw more than $2k on a free revolut account.
HSBC charges a weekend FX fee. From https://www.hsbc.com.au/foreign-exchange/
"When the foreign exchange market is closed on weekends (from the US market closing time on Friday to the Asia market opening time on Monday), the HSBC Real Time Exchange Rate will include an additional weekend risk margin to cover any market volatility risk."
You must have a way of keeping the markets open? Might be a job there for you.
Buzzt try again. Zero weekend rate when you transact wit Visa facilities unlike Revolut which slaps you anyway.
almost all conversions involve weekend fees as they take risk of "Market currency fluctation" (or somehow they will take it opaquely)
Yes but have you seen Revolut? It is not a weekend spread it is 1%. A fat rip off.
Learnt this the hard way when I did a long stint overseas. It"s not a good account to live on. Wise + your choice of travel friendly cards like HSBC is infinitely better.
They have their uses. Instant global transfers is pretty good. Their Australian retail exchange rates aren't great but some other parts of HSBC (internationally) do competitive rates.
In Australia they have probably the best offering of foreign currency accounts.
HSBC has been good to me. The Global Currency is of most useful for buying FX and then withdrawing the money overseas (eg: Yen). Although Wise is an alternative, you cannot withdraw lots of cash overseas without % fees. At the very least, HSBC allows you to draw the FX money overseas without charges (eg: 7 Eleven, Maybank).
Back to keeping the FX money under the pillow. These days you can get good fx rate from places like Crown Exchange in Lonsdale that is close enough to the online rate.
Then of course, Star Alliance HSBC. What's going to happen to that? EDIT: 11/03/2025 - Annual Fee jumps to $499 from $450. Wow!
Enjoy the last 18 months I am guessing.
HSBC suffers the same problem as our banks do. When you go into markets that is not your home markets you either build scale or you don't.
HSBC profit driver is really Hong Kong where they are the top bank (other than standard & chartered) that is due to HK was the gateway to China. In the UK they make okay money but suffers from competition in retail against likes of Barclays, Lloyds and Natwest (new RBS). It is commercial banking and investment banking that makes money.
Australia's big4 is trapped by high returns here. Whenever they tried to expand overseas they've exited later because the competitor response erodes the high returns in the core Australian market. Happened to ANZ (Asia) and NAB (US)
In banking you really make money from people who are too lazy to shop for a better deal.
Less competition = Fewer deals for credit card churners.
citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
What does OzBargain's business crystal ball @neil have to say about this?
Won’t someone thing about the money launderers and which bank they will need to use next
Godspeed
gg 2% cashback?