Irish e-payments firm Trintech has become the first company in the UK to have its smart card and PIN technology certified for use at points of sale in retail outlets by Bank of Scotland subsidiary Streamline Merchant Services.
Trintech’s PayWare SmartPIN solution will be first implemented at Wilkinson, one of the UK’s largest home and garden high street retailers. The solution will mean that the retailer will be the first UK chain of stores to accept chip and PIN cards.
A special trial for the technology will take place across Northampton this month as an initial step for a national rollout. Once the trial is completed, Wilkinson plans to implement PayWare SmartPIN in over 200 stores across the UK.
The Streamline certification from the Bank of Scotland means that Wilkinson can accept international Europay, Mastercard and Visa-compliant chip-based credit and debit cards at the point of sale, which are validated using a PIN number rather than a signature. It is believed that this will reduce the retailer’s exposure and liability to card payment fraud.
Bank of Scotland’s Streamline handles more than 1.75bn transactions each year, representing one out of three of all UK card transactions.
“We believe that this is the first accreditation by an acquirer in the UK and as such Streamline Wilkinson and Trintech are leading the field”, commented Tony Redford of Streamline Merchant Services.
By John Kennedy
