Revolut announces UK trial of facial recognition payment system

Revolut has announced a trial of its controversial new Pay with Smile facial recognition system at store checkouts in the UK, describing it as the country's first in-store facial recognition system.

The system carries no processing fees for merchants and runs on Revolut Register, the company's two-screen hospitality point-of-sale hardware that combines payments, banking, and floor operations. Enrolled users verify transactions through biometric authentication data matched against selfies registered upon signing up. Revolut processes and keeps all personal data entirely within its proprietary application environment without sharing it, while facial embeddings are immediately deleted once sales are confirmed and are not retained in-store.

Designed to reduce payment friction, the system is controversial due to the public's distrust of facial recognition technology and surveillance fears. The trial runs until 26 September at select Kiss the Hippo coffee locations in Bloomsbury, Chelsea, and Soho.

 In a statement responding to the news, Jack Coulson, Head of Advocacy at Big Brother Watch, said: "How people want to conduct their banking is their choice, but they should be under no illusions that giving away their biometrics is safe.

"You can get a new passport, but your face is irreplaceable. Lost face scans can be used to fool identity checks and produce deepfakes, including sexualised images. The kind of potential violation is profound and unprecedented.

"This is made worse by the state of the UK’s law regulating facial recognition... We are calling for dedicated legislation for facial recognition technology, which should strictly limit its use and set out clear protections for the public. This must cover the private sector, as well as the police.”

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