Revolut Trials In-Store Facial Recognition Payment System in the UK

Designed to reduce payment friction, though likely to prove controversial.

Revolut

Revolut has announced a trial of a new facial recognition payment system in the UK. The company claims its Pay with Smile technology represents the first in-store facial recognition deployment in the country, with no processing fees for merchants. Initially, the service is available only at selected Kiss the Hippo coffee locations in London.

The system operates through Revolut Register, the company’s newly developed hospitality point-of-sale hardware platform. This two-screen solution integrates payment processing, banking services, and operational management for merchants.

After enrollment, the system uses biometric authentication to verify customer identity against selfies provided during registration. Revolut’s Alex Codina stated: “By combining high-performance processing with facial recognition technology, we’re replacing outdated, fragmented tills with a hyper-efficient checkout experience designed to address consumer and merchant pain points.”

Revolut processes all personal data entirely within its proprietary application environment and does not share it with third parties. Facial embeddings used for transaction verification are deleted immediately after sale confirmation and are not retained by merchants on-site.

While not the first facial recognition payment system, Pay with Smile faces competition from earlier entrants. Alipay launched a similar Smile to Pay system at Hong Kong KFC locations in 2017, though it remained limited to China. Tencent also introduced a facial payment system called Frog Pro in 2019.

Revolut stated the system aims to reduce payment friction and prevent lost sales, though the technology is likely to prove controversial given widespread public skepticism toward facial recognition. UK Revolut customers can enroll and test the system at Kiss the Hippo cafes in Bloomsbury, Chelsea, and Soho through September 26th.

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