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French shoppers give new payment method the thumbs up

PARIS - Supermarket shoppers in France have welcomed new technology that allows them to pay for goods by having their fingerprints scanned.

French shoppers had the option of paying for their goods by letting a biometric reader scan their fingerprint. Photo: The Daily Telegraph

French shoppers had the option of paying for their goods by letting a biometric reader scan their fingerprint. Photo: The Daily Telegraph

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PARIS - Supermarket shoppers in France have welcomed new technology that allows them to pay for goods by having their fingerprints scanned.

In a-six month trial, more than 900 customers of supermarket chain Auchan and DIY store Leroy Merlin had the chance to pay for their shopping using their fingerprints.

The pilot took place between October last year and March this year in Villeneuve-d’Ascq and Angouleme near Lille in northern France.

The participants carried a payment card that stored their fingerprint data and a case that was used to communicate with the payment terminal.

When they went to pay, shoppers just placed a finger on the reader. The reader read either their fingerprints or finger veins, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Following the trial, 94 per cent of participants said they were willing to use the payment option for all their in-store purchases.

Almost 5,000 transactions took place during the trial, which product developers Natural Security, part of Banque Accord, said was a high adoption rate. The average transaction amount was €58.60 (S$96.40).

Mr Cedric Hozanne, chief executive of Natural Security, said: “We’ll be using the results to feed into future developments, but undoubtedly it’s been a success. Consumers are ready for this new type of payment method.”

The scheme involved banks Banque Accord, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Credit Mutuel Arkea, as well as retailers.

A recent survey of 2,159 shoppers by payments processing firm WorldPay also found a strong interest in biometric payment methods.

Almost half (49 per cent) of those surveyed said they would like to have biometric payments, such as fingerprint, palm or iris scanners. Just 30 per cent said they would like to use contactless smartphone payments and 23 per cent wanted to use text message payments.

Mr Ron Kalifa, deputy chairman of WorldPay, said: “It’s interesting to see the public considering options such as biometric payments, a science that they may have seen in sci-fi films or on TV, which suggests familiarity and visibility of new payment technologies is crucial in moving usage from tech savvy enthusiasts to the wider public.” AGENCIES

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