Payment technology a breeze for Tailwind

Published on Saturday 28 March 2009 16:13

NEW technology that will save retailers thousands of pounds on payment processing machines and improve security is being launched by a Scottish firm this week at a trade show in London.

The equipment devised by Tailwind Solutions allows retailers to accept 'contactless' payment cards which are being rolled out to customers by the major banks as a successor to Chip and PIN.

Rather than entering a personal identification number, customers can swipe their card across the machine to process their payments, initially for transactions under 10. Contactless cards were tested by Royal Bank of Scotland staff at Gogarburn and a larger pilot will be carried out in Liverpool next month, involving about 500 retailers.

This month Barclays Bank began sending contactless Visa debit cards to all customers getting new or replacement cards.

Garry Knox, a director at Dunfermline-based Tailwind, said retailers would not have to invest in a new piece of equipment to sit alongside their Chip and PIN machines. It clips on to the terminals to save retailers money, and takes up less space on their counters. Knox said that, as far as he was aware, Tailwind's was the only product that could integrate in this way with Chip and PIN machines and the design had now been patented.

Knox said: "Retailers who only recently had to invest in Chip and PIN are now being expected to spend money on technology to process contactless cards. When tier one retailers, such as McDonald's, invest, others will follow."

Another of Tailwind's products is designed to tackle the growing problem of Chip and PIN devices being stolen by criminal gangs to capture card details.

It locks the pin entry device to its stand so it can only be removed by an authorised user with a key.