Paysafe to Acquire Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions for USD 470 mln

Paysafe Group has announced plans to acquire Merchants’ Choice Payment Solutions (MCPS), a US-based payment processor.

MCPS is a data-focused full service payment processor for merchants and high-volume Independent Sales Organisations (“ISOs”) in North America. The company provides payments services to approximately 60,000 merchants in 50 states and processes over USD 14 billion in sales volume annually.

This acquisition will help Paysafe to get a foothold in North America. The company will add MCPS’s point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure to its Paysafe Processing division increasing its ability to process POS, online and order ahead payments.
MCPS reported revenue of $446 million and earnings before tax of USD 18.4 million in the year ended 31 December 2016. At that date, MCPS had gross assets with a value of USD 90.4 million.

Paysafe is a global provider of payment solutions. Merchants can, through their websites, use their services and gateway platforms, and innovative prepaid products and solutions, to simplify how they accept credit and debit card, direct-from-bank, and alternative and local payments.

Source: The Paypers

Western Union Updates Online Payments Platform for International Students

The Western Union Company has updated the WU GlobalPay for students platform, which enables academic institutions to manage payments from international students.

Western Union made the announcement at Money 2020 Europe in Copenhagen where three of its leading executives are speaking this week on WU’s role in fintech movement and innovation in the international payments digital world.

The platform was developed with the involvement of international students who gave insight for improving the overall payer experience. The mobile-first user interface offers real-time payment tracking for online bank transfers and credit card payments.

Furthermore, the solution supports different online payment options in over 30 countries, including Geoswift (Unionpay, Tenpay & AliPay), POLIpayments, India Net Banking, Trustly and SOFORT.

Wirecard and Western Union Streamline Money Transfer In India

Wirecard has announced an agreement with Weizmann Forex, Western Union`s agent in India, to provide money transfers in India.

The service will be released to thousands of locations across all major cities and districts in India, as a part of the 150,000-strong SmartShop agent network of Wirecard in India. These agents provide access to financial services and retail-assisted ecommerce to people who do not have internet access, smartphones or bank accounts.

Through the SmartShop agent network, people will be able to receive remittances from Western Union even in rural areas of India, immediately after the money has been wired by the sender. Locations that the company is adding Western Union Money Transfer services to will also include travel agencies, foreign exchange houses and locations that currently focus on domestic remittances.

According to PR Newswire, India’s digital payments market is expected to more than double to reach USD 470 billion by 2020, making India the world’s largest recipient of remittances (World Bank estimates approximately USD 62.7 billion had been sent to India in 2016).

Circle Launches Fee-Free Cross Border Payments

Circle Internet Finacnial, a payments blockchain startup, has announced the launch of no–cost cross-border transactions to its users.

As part of the roll-out of the startup’s service upgrade, customers in the US, much of Europe and the UK will not have to pay fees or mark-ups on foreign currency exchanges. The company also provides instant transactions for users that send funds between these countries.

The upgrade comes after the startup cringed from its Bitcoin buying and selling services, though at the time the startup said it still planned to use blockchain behind the scenes, as Coindesk states.