Person-to-Person Payments

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 …

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 …

As Russian armed forces continue their assault on Ukraine, Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and American Express Co. late Saturday said they are suspending all operations in Russia, following up on actions taken by the networks nearly a week earlier. Meanwhile, reports began to filter out of Russia that at least some …

Block Inc., parent company of Square Inc., has become the latest payments provider to come under the scrutiny of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB, as well as attorneys general from multiple states, have requested information from Block related to how the company handles complaints and disputes from customers …

Cross-border payments specialist Flywire Corp. reported its payment volume rose 75% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, to $3.1 billion. Volume for 2021 totaled $13.2 billion, up 76% from 2020.Walmart Inc. announced customers can send remittances from any of its U.S. stores to any of its stores in Mexico for a fee as low …

Volante Technologies Inc., a cloud payments and financial messaging provider, said it will offer U.S. financial institutions a unified real-time payments service that offers access to The Clearing House’s RTP network and the upcoming FedNow service, which is expected to launch in 2023. Volante has been in the FedNow pilot program since 2021.Facepay …

Co-op Financial Services, which operates a network of 30,000 ATMs for credit unions, has rebranded as Co-op Solutions.Processor Evertec Inc. announced an extension of agreements with Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, which includes a 10-year extension of a merchant acquiring independent sales organization agreement. Evertec also announced it was acquiring BBR SpA, a Chile-based …

MoneyGram International Inc., which is being acquired by private-equity player Madison Dearborn for $1.8 billion, said it had fourth quarter revenue of $324.6 million, a 0.4% increase from $323.3 million in the 2020 fourth quarter. Net income for last quarter of 2021 was $4.2 million, a 37% decrease from $7.3 million …

With the close of Block Inc.’s $29-billion acquisition of buy now, pay later platform Afterpay Ltd. at the end of January, the payments company installed a key component in a plan to more tightly integrate its seller and consumer businesses, Square and Cash App, according to Block’s top executives. Indeed, …

Digital-currency payments specialist Circle Internet Financial LLC announced it has agreed to new terms with Concord Acquisition Corp., terminating an agreement it had reached with that company in July. The new agreement values Circle at $9 billion, twice the valuation set by the original SPAC combination. The holding company established by the original agreement …