News

Pay By Touch launches first U.K. implementation

March 8, 2006

OXFORD, U.K. - Pay By Touch, provider of biometric authentication, personalized rewards and payment solutions, announced in a news release the launch of its first U.K. implementation. Shoppers and members at the Midcounties Co-operative supermarket in Oxford will have the option of conveniently and securely paying for groceries using a finger scan linked to their financial accounts.

"Initial response from our members to this new service has been very encouraging, and we are delighted to be the first U.K. retailer to offer a more secure and convenient way to pay and receive dividend points," said Bill Laird, chief operating officer of Midcountries Co-op Retail. "Our customers are embracing Pay By Touch because it helps them get through the checkout faster, without having to hunt for cards, checks, wallets or purses."

The Pay By Touch system uses a simple finger scan to authorize an electronic transaction from a customer's existing accounts while automatically honoring Co-op dividend points. The one-time enrollment takes a couple of minutes online or at the customer service counter in participating stores.

Enrollment in Pay By Touch is free to consumers and is always free to use. The Pay By Touch technology does not use actual fingerprints; instead, it reads a set of 40 unique measurements that are encrypted and hosted at secure IBM data centers. The unique measurements cannot be reverse-engineered into a fingerprint.