Escalent Inc., an analytics and advisory firm, said it acquired Mercator Advisory Group, adding to its payments advisory portfolio. Escalent acquired Javelin Strategy & Research in 2019. Current Mercator president and chief executive Robert Misasi will help with the transition before leaving these positions.MoneyGram International Inc. agreed to pay a civil monetary penalty of …

Payments-technology provider XTM Inc. said it has added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its U.S. Today mobile wallet. The company says it has rolled out more than 100,000 wallets so far.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. said it will process payments for cryptocurrency by holders of the Ledger hardware wallet. With the agreement, holders can buy crypto …

Payments provider ACI Worldwide Inc. said its data indicate the number of tax payments made via a mobile device has increased 27% over the same time last year, while the dollar value has climbed 40%. Tax payments via credit card are up 13%, and have increased 8% by debit card. Dollar value …

Buy now, pay later specialist Affirm Inc. said its fiscal quarter-to-date financial metrics exceeded its expectations, leading it to revise its financial outlook. Affirm on Feb. 10 had expected its gross merchandise volume to be no more than $3.71 billion, but now says it will be at least that much.Aplazo, a buy …

E-commerce platform eBay Inc. announced it is launching a digital wallet, its first, to allow sellers to use proceeds from their sales to make purchases or pay for selling expenses.The Western Union Co. has suspended operations in Russia and Belarus in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move follows decisions by other global …

Diebold Nixdorf Inc. launched its Vynamic Retail Platform that includes functions such as checkout, loyalty program management, retail management, and compliance.Visa Inc. said it completed its $2.15 billion acquisition of Tink, an open banking platform. Announced in June, the acquisition gets Visa access to 3,400 financial institutions in Europe. Stockholm-based Tink will operate …

Consumer spending in the United States, in terms of February retail sales excluding auto, was up 8.7% over February 2021 and 17.3% over February 2019, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse report, which monitors in-store and online retail sales.President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work out a common …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. will raise interchange rates for online merchants starting next month, while also lowering the rates for some small-merchant categories, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Mastercard’s fee changes alone will result in a net increase of about $330 million yearly, according to the Journal story, …

The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC said transaction volume on EPN, its automated clearing house network, increased 9.6% in 2021. The Clearing House and the Federal Reserve, the only ACH operators in the United States, each handle approximately half the commercial ACH market, TCH said.Buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. said Yapstone …

Visa Inc. will decrease interchange rates by 10% for small businesses accepting consumer credit cards in April, according to a Reuters report. The reduced rates will apply to online and card-present transactions and only to merchants with $250,000 or less in Visa consumer credit volumes, Reuters attributed its information to an …