The concerns keeping CFOs awake at night help define their business strategies in the morning. And with the news this week that B2B credit card platform Pliant is planning to expand, while Mastercard is bringing its commercial cards to mobile wallets, CFOs looking to sleep a little better are prioritizing achieving certainty and seamless reconciliation when receiving payments. That’s because, as PYMNTS Intelligence found in the first two editions of “The 2024 Certainty Project” has found, the top four concerns of today’s middle-market financial leaders and their b ..read more

The industry of companion apps and robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding. Greg Isenberg, formerly of WeWork’s startup hub, recently speculated on the financial potential of chatbots that simulate relationships, drawing from the behavior of a young investor who said he spent $10,000 monthly on such technology. On a post on X (formerly Twitter), Isenberg highlighted the success of Match Group in the dating app industry, with a market cap of $9 billion, and predicted that a similar AI-driven platform could generate over $1 billion. The market cap for Match Group is ..read more

The B2B landscape is on the cusp of the next era in payments innovation.  As PYMNTS readers already know, this new and exciting era is being driven by an ongoing digital transformation of historical processes and an electronic streamlining of traditional workflow hiccups.  In order to capture the concrete opportunities that exist for B2B businesses to accelerate sustainable growth and establish marketplace differentiation, embracing innovation and doubling down on payments improvements is becoming more imperative than ever.  That’s why PYMNTS doesn’t take a break ..read more

With consumers struggling under ongoing financial challenges, many may find credit card surcharges to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back, leading them to be less loyal to favorite merchants. In PYMNTS’ Q1 eBook, “The Implications of Uncertainty,” which draws on advice and observations from 18 payments industry executives, Joe Meuse, VP, Product at Spreedly, noted that credit card swipe fee inflation could transform the way that consumers pay. “With [credit card transaction] costs continuing to rise, merchants may be forced to re-evaluate their pricing strategy and consid ..read more

Netflix’s first-quarter earnings report on Thursday (April 18) paints a picture of success, with nearly 270 million paying customers globally and a 15% year-over-year surge in revenue. Operating income soared by 54% to hit $2.6 billion, fueled by subscriber fees and its burgeoning ad business. This significant growth not only reaffirms Netflix’s dominance in the streaming industry but also reflects a broader global shift away from traditional broadcast television toward on-demand content consumption. The addition of 9.3 million paid subscribers in Q1 alone underscores the increasing demand for ..read more

European Union (EU) antitrust regulators are reportedly preparing to approve Apple’s tap-and-go mobile payments system proposals as early as May.  The tech company had proposed to open the system to rivals after being accused by the European Commission (EC) of thwarting competition.  After getting feedback from Apple’s rivals and customers, and having the company make some modifications to its proposals, the regulators are set to approve them, Reuters reported Friday (April 19), citing unnamed sources. By settling the investigation, Apple could avoi ..read more

The rise of the Click-and-Mortar shopper in Brazil may give some tailwind to the use of Pix, the instant payment system that became operational in the country in late 2020. The data tell the story as to the platform’s use: As detailed by Brazil’s central bank, the number of Pix monthly transactions has been well over 4 billion, at 4.3 billion as March ended. That compares favorably to the 2.5 billion in March of last year. The central bank’s information also notes that person-to-business transactions in March of this year were 192.5 million, up from 121 million a year ago. Initiation “typ ..read more

Many consumers may have traded down to private-label brands in earlier stages of the current period of high inflation, but now, according to Procter & Gamble, shoppers are consistently staying loyal to their favorite name brands. On a call with analysts Friday (April 19) discussing the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) giant’s third-quarter fiscal 2024 financial results, Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten said consumers are sticking with national brands, no longer sacrificing them for lower-priced store-brand options. “Private label shares, value shares, are actually very stable — 16.4% [i ..read more

Business travel has reportedly caught up with the booming business that leisure travel has enjoyed over the past three years. Three airlines that have released their first quarter results — Delta, United and Alaska Airlines — reported that corporate travel has rebounded, Reuters reported Friday (April 19). Alaska said Thursday (April 19) that its business bookings were back to pre-pandemic levels, according to the report. Over the prior year, those bookings had been stuck at 75% of those levels. When reporting their latest quarterly results, United said it ha ..read more

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is emerging as more than just a token exercise. It’s another function of the blockchain landscape that has captured the imagination of various players across payments, finance and commerce: the ability for organizations to represent ownership rights of a real-world asset as a digital, on-chain token.  Tokenized RWAs have the potential to make assets more liquid, accessible and efficient while enhancing transparency, security and global reach. Representing RWAs on the blockchain — such as real estate, private equity and venture investments, fine ..read more