Singapore-based technology company Touché today announced an agreement with OCBC Bank (“OCBC”) to bring the world’s first fingerprint biometric-based payment and loyalty management solution to OCBC’s Singapore credit card merchant customers.

Developed in Singapore, Touché includes both an elegant and innovative device and a robust software solution that delivers highly secure, convenient and personalised point of sale transaction services at the touch of two fingers.

Touché will offer the solution to all of OCBC’s cards acceptance merchants with physical stores.

Touché delivers a number of advantages that redefine point of payment and customer interaction. For merchants, Touché eliminates the need for multiple payment devices. Its devices are set up to accept traditional card payments as well as fingerprint-based payments. Touché brings operational efficiencies since transactions are completed quickly, and recorded electronically. Receipts are emailed – making the reconciliation process more efficient and eliminating paper entirely.

Touché also makes management of loyalty programmes easy for both customers and merchants. Points and discounts are instantly applied for qualifying customers at the point of interaction. For merchants, moving existing loyalty programme members to the Touché biometrics based platform is painless. As is building a new, tiered loyalty programme that offers membership based benefits.

Uniquely, Touché also provides for personalised customer experiences. Merchants can recognise their customers at any point of interaction and accord them recommendations and offers that are relevant to them. Touché’s data analytics component enables merchants to create bespoke, personalised, offers for customers based on their own preferences and buying patterns.

For the merchants’ customers, Touché brings convenience and efficiency and ease of use. A one-time registration process takes under two minutes wherein people can add their existing credit cards, loyalty/membership cards and link them to their fingerprints. Once registered, payments are completed in under four seconds at one touch, without the need for signature, pin number, card or mobile phone. Neither do people need to carry their loyalty cards, discount vouchers, coupons (etc) to access their benefits.

“Touché provides a highly convenient and secure transaction point for people without the need for multiple cards,” said Sahba Saint-Claire, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Touché. “But Touché is more than payments and biometrics. We are a solution that enables merchants to provide their customers with personalised experiences to deepen their relationships. Touché is a key point of differentiation for banks and merchants, helping them grow their business by delighting customers and offering the next level in people engagement.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with Touché to be the first in Singapore to offer a fingerprint biometric payment solution to our cards acceptance merchant customers. This service enables an easy and secured platform that will improve the user experience for their customers. It will make digital e-payments simpler and more accessible than using cash, and will help to drive Singapore’s push towards becoming an e-payments society,” said Mr Desmond Tan, Head of Group Lifestyle Financing, OCBC Bank.