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 …

Cryptocurrency’s steady march toward becoming a mainstream payment option took another step with Sling TV’s acceptance of seven digital currencies and five stablecoins through BitPay Inc. The deal, announced Monday, will enable existing subscribers of the streaming television service to pay their monthly subscription fee with cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, …

American Express Co. saw its crucial travel-and-entertainment business continue to recover in the final three months of 2021, leading top company executives Tuesday morning to express considerable optimism for 2022. But don’t look any time soon for the New York City-based card giant to make any major forays into buy …

One of the most receptive markets for cryptocurrency could be that for content creators, most of whom are self-employed and looking for fast and reliable ways to get paid. That’s what BBTV Holdings Inc. figures, and on Wednesday the video platform launched Pay to Crypto to send payments to marketers on …

Visa Inc.’s Back to Business study found 82% of small businesses plan to accept some form of digital payment in 2022, with 24% saying they plan to accept digital currencies like Bitcoin. The study canvassed 2,250 small-business owners and employees in nine countries, including the United States.Payments provider Lightspeed Commerce Inc. said its merchants …

Colony Bankcorp Inc. announced it has launched a merchant-acquiring division led by Steve Raines as director for merchant services. Raines most recently was director at Synovus Merchant Services.Laurentian Bank of Canada said it will work with the card-issuing platform Brim Financial to issue Visa products in 2022, with features including instant virtual …

Buy now, pay later specialist Splitit Payments Ltd. said its merchant sales volume for the first two months of the fourth quarter totaled $94 million, a 52% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 61% increase year-over-year. Splitit reported $11 million in merchant sales volume across the holiday shopping weekend, including Black Friday and Cyber …

Shift4 Payments Inc. denied what it called “media reports” that it is pursuing an acquisition of EVO Payments Inc. Shift4 is “focused on supporting … new growth verticals” instead, the company said.Microsoft Corp. is testing buy now, pay later capability in its Edge browser. In conjunction with Zip Co. Ltd., the BNPL service is at the …

Amazon.com Inc. said its Amazon One technology, which scans customers’ palms to process payments, is now available at more than 70 Amazon physical stores, Whole Foods stores, and third-party locations.Merchant acquirer Shift4 Payments Inc. released a business update indicating its volume for October was 80% higher than the same month in 2020, with the number …