January 15, 2023

FreedomPay to Unleash the Power of Pay at NRF 2023

One of the world’s fastest growing fintech to showcase award-winning global commerce technology platform and industry-leading partner network.

NEW YORK, National Retail Federation, Jan. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, the global leader in Next Level Commerce and the commerce technology platform of choice for global retail, hospitality and payments brands including Marriott, Foot Locker, Shake Shack, Engage People, and Castles Technology, will showcase its innovations and partnership announcements this week at NRF in booth #4250.

The event will mark the launch of FreedomPay’s new call to action, Unleash the Power of Pay. As the commerce landscape evolves with new technologies and changing consumer needs, Unleash the Power of Pay introduces the notion of unleashing the power of payments to drive greater customer loyalty, leverage business intelligence insights, and bring value-added services.

“FreedomPay is excited to make a splash at this year’s NRF and to launch Unleash the Power of Pay. The concept is a testament to our award-winning technology and best-in-class partner network that is enabling billions of transactions in more than 75 countries across the globe,” said Tom Durovsik, Founder & CEO of FreedomPay.

As part of its line-up at NRF, FreedomPay will host a roundtable discussion on Monday, January 16 at 10:30AM at booth #4250 with industry influencers Castles Technology, Charter Communications, and Elo Touch, moderated by Dale Laszig of the Green Sheet. The event, Next Level Commerce: Unleashing the Power of Pay, will focus on the challenges and opportunities across retail, the trends influencing retail’s future, and strategies for merchants to navigate the changing retail sector. Those who would like to attend virtually are encouraged to register here.

FreedomPay also announces the publication of a new industry white paper The Next Level of Global Payments: Unleash the Power of Pay. The report highlights pivotal opportunities for retailers to elevate customer relationships and increase profit margins internationally, outlining strategies for security, safety, speed, simplicity, and customer satisfaction with service across borders. Download now to read the bespoke report.

FreedomPay’s global footprint continues to grow through the power of its partner network and new integrations to allow merchants to Unleash the Power of Pay for their customers. FreedomPay also announced in the days leading up to NRF 2023 new partnerships that will bring its solutions to more merchants around the world.

Moneris Solutions Corporation (“Moneris”), the largest payment processor in Canada*, will now be able to offer its merchants access to FreedomPay’s commerce technology platform, bringing an enhanced checkout experience to millions of shoppers across Canada.

FreedomPay also announced an integration with Flooid, bringing enhanced innovation, choice, and flexibility to retailers around the globe on the Flooid platform.

To learn more about FreedomPay, visit us at NRF booth #4250 or www.freedompay.com.

About FreedomPay

FreedomPay’s Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay’s technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world-class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay’s robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in-store, online and on-mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

*Based on total number of transactions processed in Canada

Jennifer Tayebi
Hill+Knowlton Strategies for FreedomPay
+1 734 395 0780
Jennifer.Tayebi@hkstrategies.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8729731

January 15, 2023

China reports nearly 60,000 COVID deaths since dropping restrictions: Reuters

China said that nearly 60,000 have died from COVID-19 and related complications since authorities lifted harsh restrictions in December after nationwide protests, Reuters reported Saturday.

Jiao Yahui, the head of the Bureau of Medical Administration under China’s National Health Commission, told a media briefing that 59,938 people had died in hospitals across the country as a result of the virus outbreak.

Some 5,503 of those were directly the result of COVID-19, she added, while others were the result of complicating factors and other diseases alongside the virus infection.

The weekend report comes amid increased scrutiny of China’s lack of transparency around hospitalizations and deaths arising from recent outbreaks. Until today, authorities had maintained that a little over 5,000 people had died of the virus since the outbreak began in Wuhan in 2019.

Since the official end of the ‘zero-COVID’ policy in early December, China had reported only 37 virus-related deaths, the Washington Post reported.

Photos of crematoriums and hospitals filling to capacity have flooded social media and netizens quickly rushed to condemn official reports citing low death numbers. In one case, on Dec 26th, authorities reported only one COVID-19 death in China.

“Ask your conscience — do you believe this?” one comment about the statement read, while another quipped: “Is this the department of disease control or the ministry of magic?”

International health experts have estimated that at least 1 million people have died from COVID-related health complications in 2022, Reuters said. The World Health Organization had repeatedly appealed for increased transparency from Chinese authorities.

The United States and several other countries had cited the lack of transparency around case numbers as the reason behind requiring testing of passengers flying in from China. On Dec 28th, the U.S. joined Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and India in requiring passengers from China to test negative before arrival.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

January 15, 2023

Brunei’s Economy Posted Positive Growth In Seven Quarters

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN– Brunei’s economy increased by 0.9 percent year-on-year, in the third quarter of 2022, rebounding from the past six quarters’ negative growth since 2021, official data showed, yesterday.

A growth of 4.6 percent in non-oil and gas sector, led to the bounceback of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the quarter, which was valued at 4.6 billion Brunei dollars (3.5 billion U.S. dollars) at constant prices.

The oil and gas sector declined by 2.7 percent, due to the decrease in oil and gas mining activities, and the manufacturing of liquefied natural gas.

In the quarter, the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector, and the industrial sector, declined by 6.3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

The services sector increased by 5.1 percent. Positive growths were recorded in air transport by 249.6 percent, followed by land transport (35.9 percent) and restaurants (31.4 percent). (1 Brunei dollar equals 0.76 U.S. dollars)

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

January 15, 2023

Philippine President Ordered Agencies To Intensify Fight Against Smuggling

MANILA– Philippine President, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, has ordered government agencies to step up the fight against “rampant smuggling” in the country, the presidential communications office (PCO), said yesterday.

In a statement, the PCO said, Marcos wants reform in the bureaucracy, to curb smuggling, lower logistics costs, and ensure ease of doing business, as his administration works to prop up investments and business activity in the country.

During a recent meeting, Marcos said that, government agencies must do something to address rampant smuggling.

“To be brutally frank about it, we have a system, but they are not working. The smuggling here in this country is absolutely rampant. So it does not matter to me how many systems we have in place; they do not work,” Marcos said.

“So we really have to find something else. We cannot continue to depend on these systems, which have already proven quite ineffective,” he added, stressing the need to fix the systems.

He also said, issues on the ease of doing business and the inefficiency of the country’s airports and seaports, are the major complaints that he is receiving from the business sector.

Marcos urged concerned agencies to be more innovative, stressing, the government has to delineate functions or establish new agencies, if necessary.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

January 15, 2023

Moderate Earthquake Hit Western Indonesia

JAKARTA– A 5.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia’s western province of West Java early this morning, the country’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said.

The quake occurred at 03:32 a.m. local time, on Sunday (2032 GMT Saturday), with its epicentre located at 25 km north-west of Bogor town, and a depth of 132 km under the seabed, the agency said.

The earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami, it added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

January 15, 2023

Two Pilots Survived Aircraft Crash In N. Iran

TEHRAN– Two pilots survived a trainer aircraft crash, yesterday morning, in the northern Iranian province of Alborz, Iran’s IRIB news agency reported.

The accident caused no property damage, as the aircraft crashed into a non-residential area that is home to farmlands, the report said.

Investigators blamed “technical malfunction in the aircraft’s engine” for the accident, it added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK