Under the agreement, the companies will work together to enhance the security, encryption and compatibility of each other's solutions. In addition, both companies will offer the Pay By Touch consumer biometric payment service as an integrated offering with VeriFone's family of payment solutions. Both companies will also collaborate on new product development, marketing, and sales of the integrated solutions.

Douglas G. Bergeron, Chairman and CEO of VeriFone Holdings, Inc., said: "VeriFone's multi-application operating system provides the secure environment required to process biometric data. Enabling secure, reliable biometric payment authentication in partnership with the leading provider, Pay By Touch, further increases our value proposition at the point of sale."

Pay By Touch, an innovator in the payments industry, provides a free service that allows consumers to pay for purchases or cash checks with just the touch of a finger. Shoppers are linked to their financial and loyalty accounts by using a simple method of finger scanning at the point of sale - eliminating the need to carry cards, checks, or cash. To date, the Pay By Touch consumer biometric payment solution is being deployed in Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. stores in South Carolina and Georgia, using VeriFone's and Pay By Touch's joint systems solutions.

"Our alliance will shape the landscape for biometric payment services at the point-of-sale by more closely integrating the Pay By Touch payment service with VeriFone's industry leading payment solutions which have achieved substantial market penetration," said John Rogers, founder, chairman and CEO of Pay By Touch. "Pay By Touch helps retailers reduce costs, eliminate fraud, and improve the customer experience. Our integrated solutions with VeriFone will make it even easier for retailers to realize the benefits of our service."

Separately, Cogent Systems (COGT) and Pay By Touch, the leading consumer biometric payments company, today announced a joint development relationship focused on reducing the cost and simplifying the installation of biometric payment solutions.

Pay By Touch allows shoppers to safely and securely pay for purchases using a finger scan to access their financial accounts and loyalty programs. Once enrolled in the Pay By Touch service, consumers scan their finger and select a preferred payment method every time they pay. The one-time Pay By Touch enrollment is simple and takes just a couple of minutes. Shoppers can enroll online or in store.

"Cogent has a strong record of providing secure biometric solutions for critical government agencies," said John Rogers, founder, chairman and CEO of Pay By Touch. "With Cogent, as a trusted partner, we are ensuring state-of-the-art security and technology while simultaneously making it more cost effective for our growing list of customers to deploy Pay By Touch. Based on customer reaction to our jointly developed solution, we expect our initial order of $5 million to be the first of many over the next 12 months."

"We are very excited about partnering with Pay by Touch to help deliver convenient new payment methods to retailers," commented Ming Hsieh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cogent. "Moving forward, we expect there will be new opportunities to deploy Cogent's technology in point-of-sale applications to enhance consumer convenience and address card fraud and identity theft issues."