Pay By Touch, a system whereby customers can make over-the-counter transactions by providing nothing more than a fingerprint scan, has been introduced in the UK – initially to three Oxford co-ops.

Fingerprint scanners in the stores match a customer's print with a list of their available credit and debit cards, and then this data is verified using a "search number" in a process which lasts little longer than ten seconds.

Already extremely popular in the US, where 2.3 million shoppers now pay for goods this way, the system will soon be rolled out to stores in Swindon and Gloucester before possibly reaching the rest of the country.

Its promoters have been at pains to point out that fingerprints themselves are not stores on their system. Instead, 40 geometric points are singled out from the print data and subsequently encrypted.

Naturally Pay By Touch may have a positive impact in reducing levels of fraud and card or cash theft, with no money or other purchasing means needed at point of sale under this scheme.