MoneyGram shares jumped 31 percent in afternoon trading on Tuesday, a day after reports that larger rival Western Union offered to buy the company.

The deal comes as MoneyGram is about $878 million in debt, according to Bloomberg, and as traditional money-transfer companies look for ways to compensate for competition from newer outfits like PayPal.

Citing security concerns, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US had already refused to allow bidder Ant Financial — an affiliate company of China’s Alibaba Group — to purchase the Dallas-based MoneyGram.

Western Union, whose stock was up 11 percent Tuesday afternoon, began in 1851 in Rochester, NY, and now has its headquarters in Denver.