Munich - A fingerprint will soon be enough to pay at Rewe. In a Köln-Hürth Rewe affiliate they are testing new technology. It is one of Germany's first '€œbiometric payment procedures," they claim at Rewe. "If it will be accepted by our customers, we plan to introduce the nationwide practice of biometric payment," says Rewe spokesman Andreas Krà¤mer to Die Tageszeitung.

To pay with a fingerprint you need to scan a finger and let your debit card with bank details be read once. The contract regulates that the data will not be disclosed. "In the first few weeks there are already 300 people who want to register" says Kramer. The advantage for customers: "It goes much faster. With the fingerprint the payment process takes seven seconds, with the debit card 14 and with cash 20 seconds, "says Rewe spokesman. Bernd Ohlmann of the Bavarian Retailers' Association is convinced that purchasing with fingerprints will soon prevail everywhere. It is an absolutely safe thing. It captures only part of the fingerprint and converts it into a numerical code. Thus a reverse transformation is not possible. The data will remain in the shop and will not be disclosed.