Pay By Touch And Discover Financial Services To Jointly Market Use Of Finger-Scanning Technology To Access Discover® Card Accounts
August 16, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO – (August 16, 2004)— Pay By Touch™
today announced it has entered into a strategic
alliance with Discover Financial Services, a business
unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD). The new alliance
is expected to increase daily usage of Discover®
Card at retail point of sale and drive adoption
of Pay By Touch, a payment service that allows
shoppers to pay with the touch of a finger.
Under the agreement, Discover Financial
Services will be one of the first financial services
companies to be associated with a viable biometric
payment option – offering customers more convenience,
flexibility and security with their daily purchases.
“This is a mutually beneficial alliance
because it allows Pay By Touch customers to take
advantage of Discover Card's benefits, and Discover
Cardmembers the option for a faster, more secure
way to pay,” said Craig Ramsey, chief executive
officer of Pay By Touch.
“Consumers
are always looking for quick and convenient payment
options, which has contributed to the success
of our own Discover 2GO® Card, the
first key chain credit card in the industry,”
said Diane Offereins, Executive Vice President
and Chief Information Officer, Discover Financial
Services. “By teaming up with Pay By Touch, we
can continue to provide our more than 50 million
Cardmembers with the latest in payment technology
by literally putting all of Discover Card's benefits
at their fingertips,” added Offereins.
The
one-time Pay By Touch enrollment is very simple
and takes just a few minutes. Shoppers scan their
finger, enter a search code, swipe rewards cards
and/or Discover Card (or other payment cards)
and add their checking account information to
build a personal Pay By Touch wallet, which is
stored at secure IBM data centers.
The
Pay By Touch finger scanning technology does not
store actual fingerprints; instead, it creates
a set of 40 data points that cannot be reverse-engineered
to a fingerprint. The data points are then converted
into a mathematical equation that allows for a
secure identity match at retail point of sale.
Once enrolled – no matter what store or state
they are in – customers can simply scan their
finger and select a preferred payment method every
time they pay.
About Pay By Touch
Headquartered
in San Francisco, Pay By Touch is a free consumer
payment service that allows shoppers to pay for
purchases using a finger scan to access their
financial accounts and loyalty programs. With
Pay By Touch, the checkout process is faster,
more convenient, and more secure than other payment
methods. It eliminates the need to present checks
and IDs, credit, debit, membership, or loyalty
cards at the point of sale. For additional information,
visit www.paybytouch.com.
About Discover
Financial Services
Discover Financial Services,
a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD),
operates the Discover Card and the Discover Network
for its more than 50 million Cardmembers. The
Discover Network is the largest independent credit
card network in the United States with approximately
4 million merchant and cash access locations.
For more information, visit www.discovercard.com.