A Fingerprint Check System Rolls Out with BI-LO

BioPay LLC has reached agreement with BI-LO, a major supermarket chain concentrated in the Southeast, to make its biometrics-based paycheck authentication service available in 176 of the chain's 300 stores. The system is expected to be operating by Thanksgiving at stores in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. When ready it will represent the largest such system installed in any single chain. The rollout follows a pilot BI-LO has conducted at 26 of its stores since June. The product, which BioPay calls Paycheck Secure, has been successful in cutting BI-LO's losses from cashing fraudulent paychecks, the chain says. The system works by taking driver's license data, an electronic photo, and scans of the two index fingers from each customer who presents a check for the first time. All data are stored by Herndon, Va.-based BioPay. When a customer subsequently cashes a check, she presses her finger on a reader, and BioPay tries to match the reading to the previously stored record, which also includes any history of fraudulent checks at other BI-LO stores or BioPay merchants, which include groceries, gas stations, and restaurants, in single locations and small chains, around the country. So far, the system has processed more than 4.5 million check transactions worth more than $2 billion. Founded in 1999, BioPay claims to have developed the country's largest commercial biometric database.