AppTech and NEC Payments Announce Financial Close of their Agreement

CARLSBAD, Calif. and MANAMA, Kingdom of Bahrain, March 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppTech Corp. ("AppTech") (OTC: APCX) and NEC Payments B.S.C(c) ("NECP") today announce financial closure of the agreement entered into by the parties in October 2020.

Under the scope of the agreement, NECP will provide a digital banking and payment technology solution that will enable AppTech to extend its product offering to include flexible, scalable, and secure payment acceptance and issuer payment processing. Through the deployment of NECP's technologies, AppTech will be empowered to drive the digitization of business and consumer payments flows and migrate cash, along with other legacy payment types to distanced, contactless card, and real-time payment transactions.

Additionally, NECP will assist AppTech by providing best in class software to complete the development of its text payment solution and, to do so, AppTech is licensing its patented intellectual property to NECP. In return, AppTech will receive licenses to utilize NECP's digital banking platform, including exclusivity in the United States for its payment acceptance software.

The merging of AppTech's merchant services and secure text payment solution with NECP's digital account and multi-channel issuer payment processing capabilities will open up many value-added digital financial services opportunities including: end-to-end payment acceptance and digital banking for small to medium-sized enterprises; and the ability to embed B2B payments at multiple points in the supply chain to facilitate straight-through processing, eliminate manual administration, and automate financial control and reconciliation on behalf of customers.

As part of the agreement, NECP will become AppTech's single largest shareholder, demonstrating the companies' commitment to building mutual value through joint success under a partnership model.

Luke D'Angelo, CEO, AppTech, stated, "The closing of this agreement and our working partnership with NECP will enable AppTech to concentrate its resources on go-to-market and quickly achieve scale and profitability from the rapid adoption of the products that we will now deliver using these cutting-edge technologies."

Andrew Sims, CEO, NEC Payments, said, "NEC Payments is delighted to have closed this important agreement and is looking forward to deploying our technologies in the US and working with AppTech as partners to develop the innovative products and services that will enable AppTech to realize its objectives and capture significant market share." He continued "Our agreement with AppTech is the first closure under NECP's new strategic initiative to invest in partnerships with customer organizations that create mutual value by using not only our technology assets but also our subject matter expertise and experience in the FinTech space."

Complete terms of the strategic agreement are disclosed in AppTech's related 8K SEC filing.

About AppTech (OTC: APCX)

AppTech Corp. is a financial technology company utilizing innovative payment processing technologies to complement its core merchant services capabilities. Its patented and proprietary software for merchant services, text marketing and lead generation are licensable or available through a suite of synergistic offerings. AppTech is developing an enterprise-grade text payment system using the simplicity and familiarity of text messaging with multi-factor authentication to ensure security. AppTech also offers digital marketing, software development, mobile app development, website development, website hosting & comprehensive payment processing for brick-and-mortar operations, e-commerce and ACH. For more information about our company, please visit: www.apptechcorp.com

About NEC Payments

NEC Payments B.S.C(c) is a digital banking and payment technology company based in the Kingdom of Bahrain and licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain as an Ancillary Services Provider: Card Processor and Payment Services Provider. The company provides innovative financial technology solutions to power high-performance, flexible and secure payment processing, compliance, and financial control systems that may be securely deployed on the cloud, on-premises, and into hybrid environments to provide flexibility, scalability, redundancy, and to drive rapid growth. The company is a principal member of Mastercard and Visa and is compliant with multiple security and business process standards including PCI-DSS L1 v3.2.1, ISO27001 and ISO9001. It recently received the accolade of "Best Digital Banking Technology Innovator, Middle East 2021" from Capital Finance International.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "intend", "may", "plan", "project", "predict", "should" and "?will" and similar expressions as they relate to AppTech are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties concerning the Company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in methods of marketing, delays in manufacturing or distribution, changes in customer order patterns, changes in customer offering mix, and various other factors beyond the company's control. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to any of these factors. AppTech is under no obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts:

AppTech Corp. Investor Relations
[email protected] 
(760) 707-5955

James S. Painter III
Emerging Markets Consulting, LLC
[email protected]
(321) 206-6682

NEC Payments
Duaa Ammar, Digital Marketing Manager
[email protected]
+973 1720 3000