In a press release this morning, payment processor Equens and supermarket chain Albert Heijn have announced they will begin a pilot with Tip2Pay - pay with your fingertip. Both a debit card and your fingertip must be presented at the point-of-sale.   » Continue Reading

Accenture has announced that it has opened a new facility at its research and development technology lab in Sophia Antipolis, France, dedicated to innovation in the rapidly growing global payments industry. The facility, called the Accenture Payments Innovation Showcase, focuses on original research and development in all facets of the payments business, including mobile communications and other point-of-sale technology, bank-to-corporate connectivity, processing, process models, biometrics, regulation such as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative, and security.   » Continue Reading

The Sunday Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune has an article titled "Pay by Touch's backers claim fingers burned" by reporter Matt McKinney that takes a look back at Pay By Touch. On March 19, 2008, Pay By Touch shuttered its biometric-based payment service.

The archive of Pay By Touch-related stories here on Payments News begins over four years ago. It's interesting to scroll back (read from the bottom up) and look at the various partnerships, financings, trials, etc. that Pay By Touch announced along the way prior to shuttering its biometrics payment service at 11:59 PM last night.   » Continue Reading

We've received the following announcement from Pay By Touch: "Solidus Networks, Inc., dba Pay By Touch, regretfully announced today that it will no longer process biometric transactions on behalf of its merchant customers and consumer membership base, as 11:59:59pm March 19, 2008."   » Continue Reading

The World Resources Institute has published a report by Loretta Michaels titled "Biometric Security for Mobile Banking". "This report identifies a confluence of technology trends leading to viable solutions that can enable very widespread access to financial services. It also discusses the obstacles blocking the growth of this market among BoP consumers, such as mobile phone banking security."

ISO has published a standard to increase the security of financial transactions over electronic media. The new standard, ISO 19092:2008, Financial services – Biometrics – Security framework, establishes the security requirements for the implementation and management of state-of-the-art biometric identification technology within the financial industry.   » Continue Reading

Arik Hesseldahl reports for Business Week that "VeriFone has quietly expressed interest in buying the assets of Pay By Touch, a biometrics company currently in Chapter 11, according to court filings obtained by BusinessWeek.com."

In a post titled "Fingering Suspects", Dave Birch writes about the use of biometrics for payments - nothing that "the rapid acceptance of contactless payment cards by the incumbents essentially usurped the speed/convenience argument [of biometrics] away."

Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson writes: At Glenbrook, we often conclude one of our Payments Boot Camps with an informal poll of participants on their favored cash replacement form factor (mobile phone, fingerprint, etc.) At a private payments workshop in San Francisco last week, we were surprised by the strength of that group's response in favor of fingerprint. We decided to test it out (still pretty informally!) with a quick Facebook poll.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Did Radio (Waves) Kill The Biometric Star?", Evan Schuman writes on his Storefront Backtalk blog about how "contactless payment and mobile payment efforts seem to have stunted the growth of retail biometrics." He notes that "the surprisingly rapid acceptance of contactless payment credit cards essentially usurped the speed/convenience argument away from the biometric people."

Murdo Macleod reports for The Scotsman about a new biometric authentication system from Hitachi that uses finger vein patterns - instead of fingerprints - for consumer authentication at the point of purchase.

The Economist profiles Nick Ogden and his company VoicePay, a provider of voice authentication-based mobile payments.

West Texas National Bank has announced that it has adopted Pay By Touch's biometric check cashing service. Paycheck Secure powered by Pay By Touch lets consumers use a finger scan to quickly and securely identify themselves to cash a government or payroll check.   » Continue Reading

EDS Fellow Randy Mears explores the use of voice biometrics for payment authentication - and VoicePay in particular. He notes the tradeoff between benefit to merchants vs. inconvenience to the buyer saying that "consumer is expected to do all the work but appears to receive little in return."

Duncan Graham-Rowe writes for the MIT Technology Review about Pay by Voice, a new payment service from Nick Ogden that uses biometric voice analysis to authenticate users. The article reports that "the biometric voice-print system behind Voice Pay was developed by Dublin-based Voice Vault" and the over 120,000 users have enrolled in the service since its launch about a month ago. Payments News covered the original announcement - then called Voice Pay - on April 30, 2007.

Voice Pay, calling itself the "world's first voice-verified payment processing system," has launched today. The company says its system uses the customer's own voice as a means of digitally signing and authorizing payments. It incorporates VoiceVault voice biometric authentication technology which is already in use by global banks, insurers and public sector organisations."   » Continue Reading

Ann Keeton reports for the Wall St. Journal about the expanding use of fingerprint biometrics. She reports that about "10% of new laptops sold in the U.S. come equipped with tiny, inexpensive fingerprint censors, eliminating the need for people to remember passwords."

This doesn't have anything immediately to do with payments - but it's potentially relevant and interesting nonetheless. Kwikset has introduced SmartScan, what the company calls "the world’s first residential biometric keyless entry system."   » Continue Reading

StoreNext Retail Technologies and Pay By Touch have announced an agreement under which the two companies will market and distribute Pay By Touch’s biometric authentication and payment service to independent grocers. The companies says that their joint solution "minimizes grocers’ transaction costs while allowing shoppers to pay for purchases with the simple touch of a finger."   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has announced a new report, Biometric Payments and Rewards: A Case Study, that provides an "in-depth review of the deployment of Pay By Touch technology at a grocery store named Green Hills." According to the report, "nine months after the introduction of Pay By Touch's SmartShop loyalty and payment solution, 25% of Green Hills' sales are made via biometric payments, and 28% of those are processed over the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network."   » Continue Reading

The PELORUS Group has published a new report titled "Alternative Payments: Changing The Rules" that concludes that "three emerging payment alternatives to the traditional magnetic stripe credit/debit card payments regime, when combined, hold the potential to significantly alter the payment landscape. Contactless credit and debit card payments (sometimes called proximity payments), mobile payments (m-Payments) and biometrically authenticated payments will each levy its own unique impact over the next five years. Together, they could garner over $400 billion in revenue by 2011." [Editor's note: I suspect that's payment volume on those instruments, not revenue.]   » Continue Reading

TRUSTe has announced the results of a consumer survey that concludes that eighty-two percent of Americans support the use of biometric identification on passports, three-quarters of Americans support the addition of biometric information to driver's licenses and nearly as many (72.6 percent) support adding it to Social Security cards. Three out of five Americans support adding biometric data to credit cards (64 percent) and debit cards (62 percent), but are much less likely to want that information on a retail store loyalty card (27 percent). This corresponds to other findings in the survey that 76 percent of respondents trusted banks and financial institutions "always" or "most of the time" as compared to 41 percent of respondents trusting retail stores "always" or "most of the time."   » Continue Reading

BioPassword has announced it has secured $11 million in Series C financing from new investor RRE Ventures and existing investors including Citrix Systems, Ignition Partners and OVP Venture Partners.   » Continue Reading

Becky Yerak reports for the Chicago Tribune on Pay By Touch, saying that the company "continues to attract financing and beef up its management ranks, recently adding a former Home Depot Inc. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. executive to its payroll." Yerak interviewed Pay By Touch President John Morris who said "this is one of the rare times where you can deliver identity theft prevention for the shopper, better security in terms of fraud for the retailer and increased convenience."

Kathleen Kingsbury reports for Time on biometrics as passwords. Kingsbury reports that "keystroke authentication is the newest offering from the field of biometrics--the measurement and analysis of unique physical or behavioral characteristics--and it's accurate 98% of the time."

Pay By Touch has announced that it has acquired S&H Solutions (S&H) and its parent company S&H greenpoints for a purchase price that was "in excess of $100 million in cash and stock." Pay By Touch sais the acquisition was "in keeping with its corporate strategy to acquire companies that complement its portfolio and provide future growth opportunities."   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that its Paycheck Secure service is now being offered to financial institutions. Paycheck Secure is a biometric check-cashing service that can help banks and credit unions generate additional non-interest fee-based income while decreasing the risk of fraud and meeting regulatory compliance requirements.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that Citibank Singapore has rolled out Pay By Touch's biometric payment services to its Citibank Clear Platinum cardholders. "Effective today, cardholders are invited to enroll in the biometric credit card service, and pay for goods and services with the touch of a finger."   » Continue Reading

RSA has announced RSA Adaptive Authentication for Phone, a product designed to "meet the financial industry’s need for strong, automated and convenient caller authentication for telephone banking, given the nature of fraud migration and the regulatory requirements stated in the FFIEC’s Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment guidance."   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced the debut of TrueMe, what the company claims is "the first secure, on-demand biometric authentication service on the Internet."   » Continue Reading

Philip Yam writes on the Scientific American blog about Pay by Touch - asking questions about whether fingerprints can be "spoofed", whether germs on the fingerprint reader might be a concern, and about privacy concerns. He concludes by discussing the economics of Pay by Touch's ACH-based payment system, noting that, according to a company rep he spoke with, "several Pay By Touch retailers have dropped credit transactions entirely for the cost savings."

The Department of Justice has announced that the President’s Identity Theft Task Force has adopted interim recommendations on measures that can be implemented immediately to help address the problem of identity theft. The Identity Theft Task Force, which was established by Executive Order of the President on May 10, 2006, and is now comprised of 17 federal agencies and departments, will deliver a final strategic plan to the President in November.   » Continue Reading

Paul Gores reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that consumers in the Milwaukee area are increasingly accepting of technology that uses fingerprints to buy groceries. "It's very well received," said Juanita Kocanda, Jewel-Osco's manager of public affairs. "We get positive feedback, especially from the people who write checks, because it comes right out of your checking account and you don't have to write a check."

Griff Witte writes for the Washington Post about the upcoming issuance of new federal employee ID cards and how the use of biometric and other technologies in those cards could spur usage in other applications - potentially including banking and payments.

Pay By Touch has announced that 13 Mobile Gas Station Wallis Convenience Stores in Missouri are now capable of handling finger-scan payments. As an introductory offer, when customers sign up for the service at participating Mobil stores, they will receive a discount of 10 cents per gallon of gas purchased the first time they pay with their finger.   » Continue Reading

Andy Williams writes CR80News about a biometric vending machine developed by graduate students at the University of California San Diego. "Want a Coke? Stick your thumb on the reader so the machine recognizes you as having an account, take out the drink, scan it with the barcode reader, then walk way, never having had to reach into your pocket for change." The project is the brainchild of UCSD engineering associate professor Stefan Savage.

Pay By Touch has announced that it has been named to the AlwaysOn AO100 List as one of the top privately-held companies. The AO100 List recognizes the 100 most innovative and successful private firms in the United States based on market potential, customer adoption and investor value.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced Paycheck Secure 8.0 that allows retailers to electronically deposit all checks at once with the touch of a button. Paycheck Secure 8.0 enhances existing technology that enables fingerprint authorization for customers cashing government or payroll checks.   » Continue Reading

Zions First National Bank, a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation, and Pay By Touch have announced the introduction of biometric check-cashing to 12 locations throughout Utah and Idaho. The new service, powered by Pay By Touch, uses a finger scan to quickly and securely identify customers when they are cashing a government or payroll check.   » Continue Reading

Anil K. Jain and Sharathchandra Pankanti write for IEEE Spectrum about the use of biometric technologies for payments applications could put identity thieves out of business and commenting that "If credit card issuers don’t act soon, customers, many of whom are becoming increasingly comfortable with biometric technologies, might just force the issue."

Broadcom has announced the world's first secure processor with integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, as part of the company's Trusted Authentication Initiative. According to Broadcom, the new device is "designed to secure personal authentication transactions associated with physical access, logical access (into a PC or network) and contactless payment applications." Broadcom also said it is partnering with RSA Security to embed its RSA SecurID technology within the BCM5890 secure processor.   » Continue Reading

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Jonathan Curiel reports on Pay By Touch's biometric-based payment system In an article titled 'The Last Days of Privacy - As technology makes life richer and easier, we leave a trail of information that is susceptible to prying eyes".

Dave Friedlos reports from the UK on consumer reaction to pilots of Pay By Touch's biometric payment service where surveys report that 85 per cent of consumers said the technology is more convenient than chip-and-PIN and 75 per cent felt it is more secure. He also reports that there currently is "little enthusiasm among other major retailers for the system."

Pay By Touch has announced that the Coast to Coast family convenience store in Tampa, Florida has begun using its Bio-Pay branded biometric payment service.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced an agreement with Verified Identity Pass, Inc. to offer discounted memberships for Clear, Verified ID's Registered Traveler Program, to select Visa Signature and Visa Traditional Rewards cardholders. According to Visa, "Clear members receive fast access through security checkpoints by verifying their biometric information in specially-designed Clear lines, enabling time-pressed travelers to quickly move through long lines and experience a more hassle-free travel experience."   » Continue Reading

A new research report by Mercator Advisory Group predicts that the market for biometrics will approach $7 billion By 2010, explores the market opportunities for payments-related biometric authentication and reviews the various biometric scanning technologies available.   » Continue Reading

Asahi Shimbun reports that threee of Japan's megabanks are introducing biometric identification into their automated teller machines, but depositors are largely shunning the systems despite enhanced security. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Mizuho Bank plan to install ATMs with biometric recognition functions at all their staffed branches by September.

Pay By Touch has announced plans to deploy its finger-touch payment service in Pathmark supermarkets. Exact locations for the initial deployment of Pay By Touch service are to be announced. Under the agreement, Pathmark plans to test the Pay By Touch service prior to a larger rollout.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that the ACCEL/Exchange EFT Network will be the first EFT network to enable the company's Internet PIN debit transactions. ACCEL/Exchange EFT Network is owned and operated by Fiserv, Inc. through its Fiserv EFT business unit.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that Fast Phil's, operator of 11 convenience stores in Spartanburg, Union and Chester counties in upstate South Carolina can now pay using a finger scan. Among the benefits of convenience of this form of payment, Pay By Touch is also highlighting that the consumer's payment information is protected from disclosure to even the store's employees.   » Continue Reading

Dave Scott writes for the Akron Beacon Journal asking "whatever came of the idea of going up to an automated teller machine, having it check your fingerprint and drawing out some cash?"   » Continue Reading

Alex Halperin reports for Business Week Online on the impact that biometrics could have in the future on everyday life - from paying for coffee, to getting cash out of an ATM to logging on to your computer at work.

Michael L. Kasavana writes for AMonline.com about biometric payments and the potential for using a biocard for vending applications.   » Continue Reading

SmartMetric, Inc. has announced it has developed a practical fingerprint microchip/sensor for use in any type of wallet-sized plastic card-credit cards, ID cards, smart cards, drivers licenses, passports and more.   » Continue Reading

Larry Ponemon reports for CSO Magazine on the results of a survey of password usage that confirms user frustrations with being required to remember multiple passwords for multiple systems.   » Continue Reading

Authentec, a vendor of biometric fingerprint readers, has announced the results of a recent survey of U.S. cell phone users concluding that they want the same advanced mobile commerce services and biometric fingerprint protection that are available to cell phone users in Asia.   » Continue Reading

BioPassword has announced a new multifactor authentication software solution that authenticates users and reduces fraud over the Internet by combining the user's standard login credentials (userID and password) with the behavioral biometric of keystroke dynamics (their unique typing rhythm).   » Continue Reading

Alex Halperin writes for Business Week about using biometrics for payments and San Francisco-based Pay By Touch who now reports having enrolled 2 million people in its fingerprint biometric payment system.   » Continue Reading

Albertson's has announced that it is implementing Pay By Touch biometric payment systems in its Jewel-Osco stores throughout the Midwest. The rollout, which began in the Chicago area early this year and is expected to be completed in all 204 Jewel-Osco stores this month, follows a successful year-long test of the technology at Albertsons stores in the Portland, Oregon area.   » Continue Reading

PublicTechnology.net reports on the implementation of an iris-scanning biometric security system at the UK's Heathrow Airport.   » Continue Reading

Unisys has announced survey results from the UK finding that UK consumers place most confidence in biometric technologies, such as fingerprint and eye retina recognition, to help combat identity theft.   » Continue Reading

Lisa Shidler writes for the Merrillville, Indiana Post-Tribune about the use of fingerprints to purchase groceries at Jewel-Osco stores as Pay By Touch rolls out in Northwest Indiana starting this week.

David Wyld writes for SecureID News about the implementation of finger geometry biometric systems at four of Disney's theme parks.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that Gary Bender has been named vice president of biometrics at Pay By Touch where he will oversee Pay By Touch's biometric technology applications.   » Continue Reading

CRMToday reviews a recent TowerGroup research report on the effects that emerging technologies could have on consumer payments over the next ten years.   » Continue Reading

Daniel Terdiman reports for CNET News.com from the Demo '06 conference about two companies who claim to handle secure payments while on the go without physical credit cards, cash or checks: Portland, OR-based mobile payments startup PayWi and San Francisco-based fingerprint biometric focused Pay By Touch.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced the launch of Pay By Touch Online, a new payment and identification service that gives consumers a "fast, easy and secure way to identify themselves and make purchases on the Internet" and is based on Pay By Touch's patented biometric technology.   » Continue Reading

In a lengthy article, Evan Schuman reports for eWeek.com on some problems with the rollout of biometric-based payments at Piggly Wiggly - after initially seeing "strong consumer interest and support for the system."   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced it has closed more than $60 million in new financing through the sale of Series C Preferred Shares.   » Continue Reading

Matthew Boyle reports for Fortune on biometric-based payments and recent research by Sanford Bernstein analyst Emme Kozloff into their potential benefits for major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced it has completed the acquisition of BioPay LLC for $82 million in stock and cash. BioPay is a biometric services provider with more than two million enrolled consumers that has authorized more than $7 billion in biometrically-authenticated transactions.   » Continue Reading

Jonathan Birchall reports for the Financial Times on Pay By Touch's plans to expand from 300 stores today equipped with its biometric payment service to an estimated 6,000 stores by the end of next year.   » Continue Reading

Valerie Miller reports for the Las Vegas Business Press on casino operator perspectives on "new-fangled payment systems."   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced that Farm Fresh has completed the installation of biometric payment technology in all 41 locations across Hampton Roads and Elizabeth City, North Carolina.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced the appointment of Steven Yecies as senior vice president and general manager of the company's new health care business division. Yecies will lead the company's launch into the health care industry, where Pay By Touch expects to leverage its biometric service application to make improvements for patients, providers, payers and retail pharmacists.   » Continue Reading

M.P. Dunleavey reports for the New York Times on new payment technologies including contactless and biometric payments.   » Continue Reading

NIST has released Special Publication 800-76, Biometric Data Specification for Personal Identity Verification (PDF), for a four week public comment period.   » Continue Reading

<Pay By Touch has announced it has acquired the assets and intellectual property of 7th Street Software, Inc. and Convena, LLC, two loyalty technology providers.   » Continue Reading

Lenovo has announced that it is on the verge of selling its 1,000,000th ThinkPad notebook equipped with an integrated biometric fingerprint reader.

"Security is critical to our customers, and they rely on Lenovo to deliver innovative, cutting-edge PC solutions," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Notebook Business Unit, Lenovo.   » Continue Reading

Mason Adams reports for the Roanoke Times on the upcoming implementation of a biometric fingerprint reading system at the cafeteria of Roanoke's Patrick Henry High School.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of CardSystems Solutions, Inc. for $47 million in stock and cash.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch and NCR Corporation have announced an alliance to offer merchants around the world a single point of contact for supporting their entire merchant and consumer biometric needs.   » Continue Reading

The New York Times is reporting that Pay By Touch is expected to announce today the acquisition of BioPay, its chief rival in the fingerprint biometric payments market.

Update: Here's the official Pay By Touch press release on the acquisition.   » Continue Reading

Pay By Touch has announced it has acquired Capture Resource, a supplier of integrated reward programs and business process outsourcing solutions.   » Continue Reading

Kathy Chu reports for USA Today on new contactless and fingerprint payment technologies.   » Continue Reading

IDesia, an Israeli-based biometrics technology company, has announced the closing of its Series A financing led by Partech International.   » Continue Reading