Norwegian Cruise Line Extends Agreement with Brightwell Payments to Deliver Positive Crew Payroll Experience Worldwide

Agreement brings new technology advancements such as mobile payroll management to 16,000 crew members.

Brightwell Payments, Inc. (“Brightwell”), a leading maritime payments and technology company, announced today that Norwegian Cruise Line has extended its agreement and will leverage the Brightwell Navigator payments platform, a web-based technology that delivers access to money transfer services and Brightwell’s OceanPay® Visa® Prepaid Card, to meet the needs of 16,000 geographically dispersed, multinational shipboard employees across its fleet.

Already a client for six years, Norwegian Cruise Line’s decision to extend its agreement with Brightwell will further simplify its payroll process and bring new technology advances, including online wage statements and a mobile app for managing and transferring payroll funds from virtually anywhere in the world, to crew members. The Brightwell Navigator platform enables crews to self-manage how they wish to be paid by maintaining instructions for automatic transfers to home bank accounts, payment directly to the OceanPay Card, and/or the transmission of funds to over 500,000 retail money transfer agents around the world.

“We’re excited to continue our longstanding, positive partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line,” said John Markendorf, SVP Client Services and Implementations, Brightwell Payments. “Last year brought opportunities for us to take part in Norwegian’s success, including its continued expansion into the China market. We look forward to continuing to help simplify payroll for crew members as the Norwegian fleet continues to grow across the globe.”

“The decision to extend our agreement is based purely on the positive impact Brightwell Payments has had on the crew experience,” said Faye Ashby, Senior Vice-President & Chief Accounting Officer for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. “Giving our team the tools they need to manage life away from home is incredibly important and we’re confident that Brightwell offers the best product on the market to help us do that.”

About Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line is the innovator in cruise travel with a 51-year history of breaking the boundaries of traditional cruising. Most notably, Norwegian revolutionized the cruise industry by offering guests the freedom and flexibility to design their ideal cruise vacation on their schedule with no set dining times, a variety of entertainment options and no formal dress codes. Today, Norwegian invites guests to enjoy a relaxed, resort-style cruise vacation on some of the newest and most contemporary ships at sea with a wide variety of accommodations options, including The Haven by Norwegian®, a luxury enclave with suites, private pool and dining, concierge service and personal butlers. Norwegian Cruise Line sails around the globe, offering guests the freedom and flexibility to explore the world on their own time and experience up to 27 dining options, award-winning entertainment, superior guest service and more across all of the brand’s 15 ships.

Recently, the line was named “Europe’s Leading Cruise Line” for the tenth consecutive year, “World’s Leading Large Ship Cruise Line” for the sixth consecutive year, the “Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Line” for the fifth consecutive year, as well as “World’s Leading Cruise Line” and “North America’s Leading Cruise Line” both for the second straight year by the World Travel Awards. Norwegian’s next new build, the highly anticipated Norwegian Bliss, will be delivered in April 2018 featuring many firsts-at-sea for the global market including the largest race track at sea, award-winning Broadway entertainment, two observation lounges for guests to enjoy stunning ocean and glacier views and more. Norwegian will introduce an additional new “Breakaway Plus” Class cruise ship in 2019 and has four additional ships on order for delivery beginning in 2022, with an option to introduce two more ships in 2026 and 2027.

For further information on Norwegian Cruise Line visit www.ncl.com; contact us in the U.S. and Canada at 888-NCL-CRUISE (625-2784); or follow us on the following social channels for the latest company news & exclusive content: Facebook, Instagram and Youtube: @NorwegianCruiseLine; Twitter and Snapchat: @CruiseNorwegian; and WeChat: @gonclcn. High resolution, downloadable images are available at www.ncl.com/media-center.

About Brightwell Payments

Brightwell Payments, Inc. is an international payments and technology company offering comprehensive, award-winning payment solutions. Brightwell Payments’ Navigator payments platform and its international maritime paycard program, the OceanPay Card, provide a proprietary, comprehensive solution designed to mitigate the unique challenges and concerns of existing payroll processes faced by the maritime industry. More than 300 customers and 200,000 individuals choose Brightwell to make over $1.5B in secure, cost-effective global payments each year.