Paypal has formed a partnership with Rainforest, an embedded payment provider focused on software platforms. The collaboration will see the companies launch an embedded payment integration to help software platforms move more processing volume away from offline methods of payments such as cash and checks, Rainforest announced Wednesday (Feb. 25). Checks are still written by 61% of Americans, […]The post PayPal and Rainforest Team to Move Businesses Away From Checks appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Investment company General Atlantic is reportedly selling an equity stake in ByteDance valuing it at $550 billion. That’s according to a report Wednesday (Feb. 25) from Reuters, citing sources familiar with the planned share sale at the Chinese tech giant. According to the report, the potential divestment would be the first since the U.S. […]The post ByteDance Valuation Hits $550 Billion in Planned Share Sale appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Wall Street had been hoping for a blowout year for tech IPOs (initial public offerings). But two months into 2026, bankers’ and investors’ hopes have been dampened by artificial intelligence (AI)-related fears, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday (Feb. 24). As the report notes, high-profile companies like SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI have all […]The post AI Unease Derails Big Year for Tech IPOs appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Watch more: What’s Next In Payments With Boost’s Dean M. Leavitt When weighing the adoption of digital B2B payments, enterprise CFOs once had to squint out across the innovation horizon. No longer. Payment advances such as digitization, automation, commercial cards, real-time payments and more are now maturing, becoming table stakes. In their wake, a […]The post For B2B Payments, Speed Is the New Strategy appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The dominant narrative around artificial intelligence has centered around its novelty and potential for disruption. But new research from the February 2026 edition of “The Agentic AI Report” from PYMNTS Intelligence suggests the AI market has already crossed a more consequential threshold. Consumers are no longer merely sampling AI but are beginning to rely on […]The post AI Isn’t a Tool Anymore. It’s Becoming the Gatekeeper appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Watch more: What’s Next in Payments With Entersekt’s Dewald Nolte The payments industry is locked into a race toward speed. Faster rails, real-time settlement, one-click checkout, invisible authentication and more innovations are all pointed toward one assumption: that friction is the enemy, and technology’s job is to eliminate it. But as the payments ecosystem […]The post Banks Rethink Fraud Controls as False Declines Rise appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Picture three Americans staring at the same electric bill. The retiree sighs, turns down the thermostat and makes a mental note to skip dinner out next week. The 28-year-old opens three apps on her phone —one to split the payment into installments, one to pick up a freelance shift and another to transfer spare […]The post Three Generations Face the Same Bills and Make Different Moves appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are approaching a practical turning point in how they pay. Cash and checks still play an outsized role in day-to-day operations, especially for supplier and vendor payments, but the direction of travel is clear. Many SMBs want simpler, more modern options that let them run their businesses with more control […]The post Small Businesses Signal It’s Time to Move Beyond Checks, PYMNTS–Mastercard Report Finds appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Small businesses are not just borrowing to survive. They are using credit cards as operating systems, and they are willing to pay for features that make day-to-day cash flow easier to manage. “SMB Growth Monitor: Small Businesses, Big Credit Needs,” a PYMNTS Intelligence collaboration with i2c, finds that most small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) feel […]The post Healthy Small Businesses Report 42-Point Edge in Card Approval Confidence appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Mercado Libre’s application of artificial intelligence across its online commerce ecosystem added revenue and enhanced efficiency in the fourth quarter, the company said Tuesday (Feb. 24). Mercado Libre Chief Financial Officer Martín de los Santos led off an earnings call by saying that the company recorded fourth quarter net revenues growth of 45% year […]The post Mercado Libre Says AI Investments Support 45% Revenue Surge appeared first on PYMNTS.com.