Every fortnight, we bring you a collection of the major events in the fintech industry.

1. Paytm, India’s largest digital wallet company, now offers a credit card

The credit card, Paytm First, offers several benefits for users which the company hopes will be able to pull in 25m customers.

2. HSBC and Standard Chartered under attack from China Tech

Tencent and Alibaba, along with smart-phone maker Xiaomi and the world’s largest insurer, Ping An, were granted banking licences by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

3. DBS retrains staff for digital future

Singapore-HQ DBS retrained more than 500 of its call-centre staff, creating new roles in social media, voice biometrics and live chat. In 2017, the bank committed to investing S$50m over 5 years to equip employees with digital skills.

(You can read more about DBS’s ten-year (and ongoing) digital transformation journey in our DBS Digital Transformation Spotlight article.)

4. Goldman Sachs invests in German fintech startup,Elinvar

Elinvar, founded by Deutsche Bank veterans, is a digital platform that helps traditional lenders offer their services online. Goldman Sachs now holds a 13.9% stake in the start-up.

5. Germany sees card payments overtake cash

The growing trust in card payments among German users, particularly the younger generation has resulted in card payments (48.6% of total retail sales) narrowly overtaking 48.3% of cash payments.

6. Visa partners Bahrain Fintech Bay

Opened last year with government-backing, Bahrain Fintech Bay already has 100 new partners. The latest to sign up is payments giant Visa to boost fintech in the Kingdom.

7. Facebook picks London as base for WhatsApp push into payments

Mark Zuckerberg announced that messaging services giant, WhatsApp’s mobile payments would launch in several countries this year, after an initial test in India. London has been chosen as the base for the initiative.

8. Mastercard to buy bill payments specialist Transactis

Mastercard has bought Transactis, a flexible online bill payments service for small businesses, in an undisclosed deal.

9. TenCent’s fintech operations generate £2.5 billion in Q1 revenue

Chinese internet tech giant TenCent reveals £2.5 billion revenue from its fintech and business services operations in Q1 2019.

10. Mastercard trials biometric cards in Mexico

Teaming up with prepaid specialist Edenred and the Mexican state of Sonora, payments giant MasterCard to trial the use of cards with embedded fingerprint sensors. These work with existing EMV terminals, adding an extra layer of security for in-store purchases.