London supermarket trialing fingertip payment system

London supermarket, Costcutter, is trialing a biometric payment system that uses the unique vein pattern in fingertips to pay for goods.

The supermarket said it would test Fingopay out more widely if the trial at Brunel University was successful.

The user's finger veins are mapped by an electronic reader, which generates a unique key.

The registration process requires users to link their finger pattern to their credit or debit card and then they can pay for goods without the need to be carrying any cash or cards.

Electronics giant Hitachi has developed the technology and biometric payments company Sthaler has been licensed to roll it out in the retail sector.

According to Nick Dryden, chief executive of Sthaler, the system would appeal to young people.

"Today's millennial generation now expects a higher level of ease, security and efficiency from the way that we pay," he said, BBC reported.

A spokeswoman for Costcutter said: "We will be interested to see the results and will decide on next steps at that point."

Each person has an almost unique layout of finger veins and the chances of two people having the same vessel structure are about 3.4 billion to one, according to Sthaler.

According to Sthaler, the technology works even with wet, dirty or small cuts to the fingers as the scanner can see inside the skin.

Simon Binns, commercial director of Sthaler, told the Daily Telegraph: ''This makes payments so much easier for customers.

''They don't need to carry cash or cards. They don't need to remember a pin number. You just bring yourself.

''This is the safest form of biometrics. There are no known incidences where this security has been breached.''