UK fintech company Revolut is trialing facial recognition payments at the London café chain Kiss the Hippo, with a feature called "Pay with Smile" running on Revolut's newly launched restaurant cash register system, Revolut Register. Revolut claims this is the UK's first facial recognition checkout system used in physical stores, with plans for a full rollout within the year.

The payment process is simple. Customers click "Pay with Smile" on the cash register terminal screen, and the system performs an identity verification similar to unlocking a phone with facial recognition, comparing the customer's face with the identity information submitted when opening their account. Once matched, the transfer is completed directly from account to account, without needing to use a card or phone.

The trial is limited in scope. From September 24 to 26, the trial is conducted at three Kiss the Hippo locations in Bloomsbury, Chelsea, and Soho, with plans to expand to all 12 locations within the year. Users need to actively enable this feature in the Revolut app settings, as it is not enabled by default and can be revoked at any time. Revolut states that facial recognition data is end-to-end encrypted, and merchants do not store any personal data.

The pricing for merchants is aggressive. Revolut charges 0% fees for facial recognition transactions, and the cash register terminal, Revolut Register, is sold at half price until December 31, 2026, priced at £349.5 plus VAT, down from £699. During the trial period, users earn triple points on each transaction. According to research cited by Revolut, independent restaurants in the UK spend an average of £875 per month on payment processing, while pubs spend over £950; terminal failures cause about £2,495 in revenue loss per year for stores; and more than half of UK residents have experienced checkout delays or failures.

Revolut's bet on offline payment acceptance is backed by its large scale. On March 11, 2026, it received a full banking license from the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority; it has approximately 65 million global users across 100 countries. Revenue is projected to be around £4.5 billion in 2025, a 46% year-on-year increase; loan volume is expected to reach £2.2 billion, a 120% increase. In November 2025, Revolut completed a transaction valuing the company at $75 billion through a secondary share transfer, with participation from Nvidia's venture capital arm. CEO Nik Storonsky stated that the company is "most likely" to go public within 2 to 3 years, with a preference for NASDAQ.

In terms of market mechanisms, Revolut's 0% fee effectively buys entry into offline payments. The facial recognition payment facilitates account-to-account transfers, bypassing the card networks of Visa and Mastercard, allowing merchants to save on card fees, while Revolut simultaneously controls both consumer accounts and merchant terminals, creating a closed loop. Funds flow from the traditional acquiring institutions and card networks' fee pools into Revolut's own account system. The beneficiaries are the profit-squeezed independent cafés and restaurants; the pressured parties are the acquiring chains of Visa and Mastercard, as well as cash register service providers like Square, SumUp, and Dojo that focus on the UK restaurant industry.

Additional data: The UK's Information Commissioner's Office has released specific guidelines regarding biometric technology. According to UK data protection law, facial data is classified as special category personal data, requiring explicit consent and a higher level of protection during processing.

Source: Public Information