First UK shop gets fingerprint payment

Midcounties Co-operative trial starts in three of its 150 food stores

The UK’s first fingerprint-based shop-payment system went on trial in Oxford this week.

The Midcounties Co-operative is running a 16-week trial of the technology from Pay By Touch in three of its 150 food shops.

Customers enrolling on the scheme set up a direct debit with their bank that works in the same way as a Switch or Maestro payment. Once established, the shopper can pay by scanning their finger and keying in a number to speed up the system’s location of the print.

But the success of the trial will be down to customer reactions, says Midcounties Co-op chief operating officer Bill Laird.

There are potentially significant benefits for shoppers.

‘The system is very easy to use and is very secure,’ he said.

‘It builds on chip-and-PIN technology, but you don’t have to remember a PIN.
‘Customers can use an easy number like a birth date because the security aspect is built into the fingerprint,’ he said.

The technology is relatively low-cost for the retailer as it uses existing infrastructure such as chip-and-PIN keypads and integrates with the existing electronic point of sale system.

‘We already pay a transaction cost to credit card firms and if this offers an alternative it will reduce those charges,’ said Laird.