by Matt Rej
While February is a short month, there are still plenty of significant stories in the payments world worth talking about. Here are some of the biggest headlines that you should be aware of:
Shift4 Rate Increase Goes Into Effect on March 1st
Merchants using Shift4 can expect their pricing to increase on March 1, 2026.
Shift4’s Month End Billing Fee is increasing to 0.05% of total processing volume, up 2.5x from its current rate of 0.02%.
You can avoid this fee by switching to daily billing. But this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Read more.
Judge Ruling Paves Way For Illinois IFPA
A judge upheld most of the new Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA) in Illinois, which was a major legal hurdle to keep the law on pace for its July 1, 2026 effective date.
This first-of-its-kind law attempts to ban interchange fees on tax and tips in Illinois.
It was originally set to take effect in July 2025, but was pushed back one year to overcome legal obstacles (including this recent ruling). Read more.
Rectangle Health Outage Lasts Weeks
Rectangle Health’s payment processing systems have been down for nearly 3 weeks, causing havoc for all businesses using this processor.
The outage stems from a ransomware attack on the payment gateway partner that Rectangle uses to facilitate its processing services.
While Rectangle is offering a virtual terminal as a short-term workaround while they attempt to find a permanent solution, the virtual terminal isn’t working for everyone, and this is by far the longest payment processing outage I’ve ever seen in my career.
That said, merchants using Rectangle now have unprecedented leverage to negotiate lower rates. In addition to the SLA credits you’re owed, you should be demanding better processing terms once systems are back up and running.
PayPal Appoints New CEO
After their latest earnings results fell short, PayPal fired CEO Alex Chriss and named Enrique Lores as his successor.
Lores has been on PayPal’s board for five years, and he’s been serving as the CEO of HP since 2019. He stepped down at HP following the announcement of his new role at PayPal, and officially takes the CEO position on March 1, 2026.
Here’s the press release from PayPal with more info.
Global Payments is Expanding its Salesforce
Global Payments plans to hire 300 new sales reps in 2026. This announcement came earlier this month, following January’s acquisition of Worldpay.
Hiring expansions like this are always important to keep an eye on because it signals the processor’s priorities. In this particular case, they’re ramping up Genius for enterprise clients.
Fiserv Rolls Out Real-Time Cash-Settlement Platform
Fiserv recently announced a new platform, called INDX, which is a real-time cash settlement solution designed specifically for digital asset companies, bringing more deposits to community banks and credit unions.
Balances are eligible for up to $25 million of FDIC insurance through Fiserv’s deposit network.
Toast Partners With Instacart
Toast and Instacard announced a strategic partnership on February 10, 2026, with the goal of streamlining operations for both restaurants and retailers based in the US.
For retailers, Toast customers can now onboard and sync brick-and-mortar inventory to Instacart’s marketplace, automating SKU and catalog alignment to ensure online availability syncs with in-store stock.
And for restaurants, the partnership gives Toast operators access to Instacart Business for things like ordering produce and kitchen supplies for same-day delivery, directly in Toast.
Agentic AI for Travel With Integrated Payments is Coming
Sabre, Mindtrip, and PayPal are all partnering to deliver a new end-to-end travel experience powered by agentic AI.
Instead of having to flip between different apps, tabs, and screens, users can use natural language while interacting with an AI travel agent on Mindtrip, allowing them to give details related to budget, locations, and timing preferences.
From there, they’ll receive personalized flight and hotel recommendations while having the ability to ask follow-up questions and complete bookings from the same interface.
This includes payments, which will be powered by PayPal’s checkout, identity verification, and digital wallets. Read more.
Processors Release Quarterly Earnings
Several major payment processors released quarterly earnings results throughout February, including:
- Toast
- PayPal
- Fiserv
- Global Payments
- Jack Henry
- Adyen
You can see highlights of the results here, along with my key takeaways and insights that can impact your merchant fees.
Tap to Pay Enabled on iPhone for Visa Acceptance
Businesses using the Visa Acceptance Platform now have access to tap-to-pay functionality on iPhones. Contactless payments are now supported on iPhones on compatible operating systems.
Adyen Powers Starbucks Payments in 943 Locations in Europe
Adyen is supporting in-person payments for Starbucks at 943 locations throughout the UK, Switzerland, and Austria. There are 2,375 payment terminals across these locations.
Square AI Launches in Europe
Square AI is officially live in European markets. This conversational AI assistant is available directly in the Square platform for free.
Businesses can use it to get contextual insights from their data, ask questions using natural language, get real-time access to performance, and track their conversion history over time.
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