News from the Wire

Pay By Touch Launches First UK Implementation at the Midcounties Co-op

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 — 15:20:18 (EST)

OXFORD, United Kingdom – (March 8, 2006) – Pay By Touch, the global leader of biometric authentication, personalized rewards, and payment solutions, today announced the launch of its first UK implementation. Starting today, 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. %%N%%NPay By Touch is an innovative payment service that provides a safer, faster, and more convenient way for shoppers to make purchases by eliminating the need to present checks, ID, or credit/debit cards at checkout. The payment service will be available in three Midcounties Co-op supermarkets in and around Oxford. %%N%%N“Initial response from our members to this new service has been very encouraging, and we are delighted to be the first UK 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.” %%N%%NThe 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 just a couple of minutes online at www.paybytouch.com, 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. %%N%%N“More than 2.3 million shoppers are already using Pay By Touch throughout the United States to make purchases, access frequent shopper programs, and cash checks at more than 2,000 retail locations,” said John Rogers, founder, chairman, and CEO of Pay By Touch. “We’ve seen enormous consumer interest in Pay By Touch for its ability to enable a faster, more convenient and secure way to make purchases.” %%N%%N“The Midcounties Co-op has a reputation for successfully deploying new technologies that enhance customer convenience,” said Tom Fischer, vice president EMEA, Pay By Touch. “Pay By Touch is already proving popular, and we are confident this will continue as the system is more widely adopted.” %%N%%NAbout Pay By Touch %%NPay By Touch is the global leader of biometric authentication, personalized rewards, and payment solutions. The company’s patented biometric products and services enable shoppers to conveniently and securely access personal accounts using a finger scan to identify themselves, make purchases, cash checks, and earn rewards. Pay By Touch also provides robust payment processing solutions for ACH, card-present and card-not-present debit and credit transactions. To date, Pay By Touch services over 154,000 retail clients, manages personalized rewards programs for more than 130 million opt-in consumers, and has more than 2.3 million shoppers using biometric authentication products and services at 2,000+ locations coast to coast. Founded in 2002, Pay By Touch is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco that employs more than 500 professionals and holds more than two-dozen U.S. issued patents. For additional company information, visit www.paybytouch.com. %%N%%NAbout Midcounties Co-op %%N%%NThe Midcounties Co-operative Society is a large co-operative society owned and controlled locally, offering services and benefits to its members and strongly promoting the co-operative way. The Society is the largest regional independent retailer in the area and the fourth largest Co-operative Society in the UK. It was officially formed in September 2005 bringing together Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op and West Midlands Co-operative Society. It is based in Oxford and Walsall, with trading outlets stretching to Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and surrounding counties. The Society has a turnover of £500 million, over 350 business outlets, 7,000 employees and 175,000 members. The Society is made up of seven key trading groups: Retail, Motor, Funeral, Travel, Property, Pharmacy, and Childcare. Visit www.midcountries.coop for additional information. %%N%%NSource: Company Press Release

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Source: Company press release.