From what I know of HSBC, it's only helpful if:
(1) You have (or can open) an HSBC account in each country, and
(2) You have an HSBC Premier relationship (generally a balance of US$100,000 or more in checkings/savings/brokerage accounts with HSBC).
If you meet both of these, then what you can do is transfer funds between your personal accounts in each country without any transaction fee, and at the spot rates to buy/sell between the currencies involved. Getting the funds into another person's account may still have some cost associated, and the international transfer is only without charge if you actually hold HSBC Premier accounts in each country (and make the transfer using HSBC Online banking, which will need to be set up for each country's account and then linked).
If you're going to be making transfers frequently, or making large transfers (such as to make a major purchase) then it will probably be worthwhile, but for single-use there's not much advantage.