iPod: Apps is for Apple, but where the FX?

While eagerly awaiting the delivery of Euromoney’s iPad consignment I thought I’d check out the availability of FX applications (or apps, as the Apple folk call them) for the iPod and iPhone. Free apps, of course – I’m not paying for this stuff.

Surprisingly, it appears that the major banks have been slow to catch on to the app phenomenon: I could only find offerings from HSBC and Citi.

I found HSBC’s effort largely useless: the app is supported from Hong Kong, all rates are against the HKD and their extravagant width of spread are those you’d expect to see in a Kowloon bureau de change (USD/HKD 245 pips wide anyone?)

Citibank’s app is more like what I expected to see: market prices updated at a configurable time interval as quick as half-a-second.