UTRECHT and ZAANDAM, The Netherlands, June 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Equens and Albert Heijn Develop Innovative Payment Method

Today the payment processor Equens and supermarket chain Albert Heijn
will begin a pilot with Tip2Pay - pay with your fingertip. For a period of
six months, customers of Albert Heijn will be able to pay for their shopping
using their fingertips. The objective of the pilot is to investigate the
potential of this technology as a new payment method and establish whether it
is received positively by consumers. This is the first pilot of its kind in
the Netherlands. It will last six months, after which an evaluation will take
place.

Tip2Pay enables consumers to pay quickly and securely by placing their
fingertip on the reader at the checkout. After they have provided proof of
identification and a debit card, a scan will be made of the unique parts of
their fingertip. Their name and address details, bank account number and - if
required - their customer loyalty card will be registered in accordance with
Netherlands privacy laws. Equens will process all fingertip payments.

This pilot is in line with the innovation policy of both Equens and
Albert Heijn. Equens General Manager for New Business, Dave Rietveld: "Recent
developments in technology facilitate new and improved payment methods.
Equens therefore operates an innovative policy geared towards the development
of new payment products based on market requirements." In addition to this
pilot, Equens is currently also developing solutions such as mobile payments
and electronic invoicing or 'e-invoicing'. Albert Heijn is currently also
testing a variety of innovative payment methods at local level. These include
mobile payments, mobile scanning and contactless payments. Albert Heijn
Innovation Manager, Jan de Heij: "We regularly test new payment concepts
among our customers. We only continue their development if they are received
with enthusiasm."

Albert Heijn and Equens will be conducting the pilot in consultation with
IT-Werke, a company that specialises in integrating biometric technology in
retail and consumer applications. The IT-Werke system has already been
successfully tested at the German supermarket chain Edeka, which now offers
fingertip payment services at 120 of its stores.

Note for the editorial staff

A press photo is available at http://www.presslink.nl/ah.

About Albert Heijn With over 750 stores, Albert Heijn is the largest
supermarket chain in the Netherlands. Every week more than 10 million
customers visit the service supermarket that has now been in existence for
over 120 years. Albert Heijn customers can visit its supermarkets, Albert
Heijn XL, AH to go, or order their shopping from the web shop at
http://www.ah.nl. Albert Heijn offers the largest selection and price and
inspires its customers on a daily basis with exciting offers. In addition to
its extensive range of A brands, Albert Heijn offers a variety of products
under its Own Brands Albert Heijn, AH Excellent, AH Biologisch and Euro
Shopper. Albert Heijn has a long history as an innovative company and is
always on the lookout for new innovations that meet the needs of its
customers.

About Equens Equens is the first truly pan-European, full-service payment
processor. As one of the largest and most innovative payment processors in
Europe, Equens is leading the market for future-proof payments and debit card
processing solutions. Thanks to an extensive and competitive service
portfolio and a flexible, customer-orientated approach, the company
seamlessly meets the requirements of the European payments market. With an
annual volume of 7.3 billion payments and 2.1 billion POS and ATM
transactions, Equens has a market share of more than 15% within the eurozone.
By continuously pursuing further growth and translating the achieved synergy
benefits and economies of scale into advantages for the customer, the company
contributes to the efficiency of European payments.

For additional information, please visit http://www.equens.com