Revolut has launched facial recognition payments in UK retail outlets, allowing shoppers to authorize purchases by glancing at a terminal instead of pulling out a phone or card. The new capability, branded Revolut Pay with Smile, integrates with Revolut Register, a point-of-sale solution tailored for hospitality vendors. Customers who enable the feature through the mobile app can finalize transactions by matching their live image to the selfie they submitted during onboarding.
The system leverages Revolut’s existing identity verification process rather than requiring stores to store biometric templates. All authentication occurs through end-to-end encryption, ensuring merchants never access customer biometric data. This design minimizes the number of third parties handling sensitive information, addressing a major privacy hurdle in biometric payment systems.
For retailers, the service eliminates transaction fees—an advantage over traditional card processing costs. The Revolut Register terminal costs £349.50 plus VAT for new adopters, down from the previous recommended price of £699 plus VAT. The device includes an eSIM for backup connectivity, reducing downtime during busy periods. This hardware forms part of Revolut’s effort to combine payment processing, banking services, and operational tools for small businesses.
Consumers benefit from triple RevPoints rewards on every transaction, incentivizing use of Revolut’s payment network over conventional cards. The loyalty boost aligns with the company’s goal to strengthen its presence in merchant acquiring and in-store commerce, moving beyond its origins as a digital banking app.
While biometric payments at checkout raise privacy concerns, Revolut’s approach mitigates some risks by using data already collected during account setup. However, widespread adoption depends on whether shoppers trust the system enough to replace contactless cards for everyday purchases like coffee or takeout. The speed advantage must outweigh any hesitation about sharing facial data, even temporarily.
Revolut’s extensive reach, serving 800,000 businesses and 80 million personal accountsstore facial recognition payment option backed by a licensed bank in the region. Success will hinge on seamless integration into daily routines and whether merchants perceive enough value in the fee-free model to adopt it at scale.
Alex Codina, head of Merchant Payments at Revolut Business, described the initiative as a step toward modernizing checkout processes. The company’s strategy centers on merging payment acceptance, loyalty programs, and business tools into a single platform.
