Revolut launches facial payment trial

Revolut announced a trial of Pay with Smile, a facial recognition payment system at select Kiss the Hippo coffee locations in London. The company says it is the UK's first in-store facial recognition system.

How Pay with Smile works

The system runs on Revolut Register, a two-screen point-of-sale hardware for merchants. Once enrolled, customers use biometric data to verify identity against selfies registered when they signed up.

No fees for merchants

Revolut says Pay with Smile has no processing fees for merchants. The company aims to replace outdated tills with a hyper-efficient checkout experience designed to solve consumer and merchant pain points.

“By combining high-performance processing with facial recognition technology, we'll replace outdated, fragmented tills with a hyper-efficient checkout experience designed to solve consumer and merchant pain points.”

Data handling and privacy

Revolut keeps and processes all personal data entirely within its own proprietary application environment and does not share it. Facial embeddings used to complete transactions are immediately deleted after a sale is confirmed.

Not the first facial payment system

China's Alipay introduced a system called Smile to Pay in two thousand seventeen at Hong Kong KFCs, though it did not move outside China. Tencent also unveiled a facial payment system called Frog Pro in two thousand nineteen.

Trial runs through September twenty-sixth

Revolut customers in the UK can sign up to try Pay with Smile between now and September twenty-sixth at Kiss the Hippo cafes in Bloomsbury, Chelsea and Soho. The system is expected to prove controversial given public distrust of facial recognition.