San Francisco-based Affirm, which offers ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) financing for consumer purchases, announced that it will acquire Returnly, a returns platform that allows customers to get instant store credit even before a return is processed.

Payments giant Mastercard plans to acquire Ekata, a 2-year-old Seattle based company that focuses on APIs and SaaS digital-identity solutions that help more than 2,000 businesses and partners combat cyberfraud.

As digital business payments surge during the pandemic, Citibank is helping its clients gain more visibility into payment paths, reminiscent of the process to track shipments of physical goods.

Bank of America has acquired Santa Barbara, California-based Axia Technologies, which is also known as AxiaMed. The 6-year-old payments technology company focuses on healthcare.

Point-of-sale lender Affirm is moving past retail shopping and into vacation property rentals. The company, which went public earlier this year, announced a limited-time partnership with vacation rental marketplace Vrbo.

Google’s head of payments says he’s leaving the company for a yet-to-be-announced “new mission.” His last day at the company is April 30.

As Stripe reaches a $95B valuation, its talent is being sought out by newer startups looking to scale. This week, Ramp, a two-year-old corporate card startup, hired Colin Kennedy, Stripe’s former global head of partnerships, as its chief business officer.

Stripe, a company whose tools allow merchants to accept payments, says it’s growing its European operations amid a $600M Series H fund raise.

While the bulk of stimulus payment cards are going out through direct deposit, a significant number will be sent via MetaBank-issued prepaid cards.

Amid fallout from Citi’s (expensive) payment mistake in which it accidentally transferred $900M to Revlon lenders and lost a legal battle to recoup it, banks are inserting wording into debt documents to protect themselves.

In a crowded market of digital-only banks and bank-type platforms, cash back rewards are seen as a way to keep customers engaged.

A series of payments systems operated by the Fed went down for several hours on Wednesday due to an “operational error,” affecting multiple services, including the automated clearinghouse system (FedACH), a lifeline that connects financial institutions sending electronic credit and debt transfers.

Streamlabs, a Logitech-owned company that specializes in tools to help streamers increase engagement, is including a tipping option in its mobile website builder Willow.

Stripe, a firm whose tools allow merchants to accept payments, has named Mark Carney to its board of directors. Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, is currently the United Nations envoy on climate action and finance.