Merchant

Ant Financial, Alibaba’s finance affiliate controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, agreed to buy a stake in the Brazilian payments firm StoneCo Ltd after the company prices its initial public offering, joining Warren Buffett in investing in Brazil’s booming financial-technology startup landscape.

Amazon.com Inc. and American Express Co. are upping the ante in their bid for small-business spending.

The $380-billion asset company will soon join the parade of big banks and tech companies that are migrating online to meet the demands of business owners.

The international payments infrastructure has reached a point where consumers can use their cards in many parts of the world as easily as they can in their own country. But finding retailers who can accept all of these cards is a completely different story.

Today, you can sell anywhere in the world successfully with just a single payment gateway integration, writes Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.

Netspend customers kept from accessing paychecks; Sen. Elizabeth Warren rebukes Comerica over fraud in benefits program; FDIC poised to revamp deposit rules (about time, say banks); and more from this week's most-read stories.

The custody bank was very profitable, and it raised its cost-saving forecast for year-end, but its nearly 3% increase in third-quarter noninterest expenses prompted an investor backlash.

As VR and AR mature, new possibilities open up for customer interaction in a virtual space.

Strong net interest income and other factors made up for a drop in investment banking and other noninterest income at the Atlanta bank, which reported double-digit earnings growth.

PayPal reports it’s adding users to Venmo’s new initiatives quickly, pushing the company’s wish to monetize Venmo to what its CEO calls a “tipping point."