Throughout 2026 so far, a considerable number of acquisitions have been announced by cross-border payments players, many of which centre on adding to their existing set of capabilities and expanding their presence and client base.
With many of these players actively looking to expand their capabilities as well as their client base, acquisitions often enable them to achieve both at the same time, among other benefits. This has been especially true in recent months, with several major payment players announcing plans to buy other companies to drive expansion quickly, without needing to build new offerings and attract a larger or new client base from scratch.
In September, payment processing giant Stripe announced its intention to acquire embedded finance provider Parafin. Through this move, Stripe plans to offer a wider range of credit products while reaching a larger number of businesses worldwide. In June, Nuvei also outlined that Payoneer’s infrastructure capabilities were a key motivator behind its acquisition, with CEO Phil Fayer telling us the move is primarily “a capability acquisition”.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia-based payment infrastructure company PayTabs Group has agreed a deal to take over Amazon’s payment operations in the Middle East and North Africa. The deal would significantly scale up PayTabs’s operations – with the combined entity reportedly expected to process more than $40bn annually – by adding Amazon’s regional market coverage and merchant base to its own.
A number of acquisitions have also centred on adding digital asset and stablecoin capabilities to businesses. Financial infrastructure platform Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, plans to acquire stablecoin infrastructure company Reap to add stablecoin payments and card issuing to its B2B infrastructure platform. Nium, the cross-border payments infrastructure company, also looks set to take over crypto-native non-custodial wallet and issuing company Cypher, enabling it to build out its digital asset infrastructure.
Several of the acquisitions announced in recent months have focused on enabling geographic expansion, buying local businesses with an established presence and expertise in target markets. Financial services network StoneX for example, is aiming to offer banking products to its clients in Brazil by completing the acquisition of Brazilian bank Banco Travelex. More recently, Circle announced plans to acquire Singapore-based B2B cross-border payments infrastructure company Tazapay, bringing the company’s local payout rail network spanning over 100 markets into Circle’s ecosystem.
