Patent ID: 8768776

Claim:
A system for facilitating a financial transaction between a prospective transactor and a transactee, comprising: a) a point-of-sale device comprising a biometric scanner; a card reader; and an encrypter, wherein a card comprising details of at least one account held by the prospective transactor at a financial institution is read by the card reader and a biometric identifier of the prospective transactor is obtained from the biometric scanner, wherein details of the account comprise an account number; b) an identity and account verifying facility for verifying the identity of the prospective transactor and details of the account held by the prospective transactor with the financial institution, the identity and account verifying facility being operated by an independent verifier, the identity and account verifying facility comprising: i) a storage device in which is stored the biometric identifier of the prospective transactor and details of the account held by the prospective transactor at the financial institution, the details of the account having been checked with the financial institution; ii) a receiver module for receiving the biometric identifier and account details of the prospective transactor from the transactee, in which the received biometric identifier is verified by comparison with the corresponding stored biometric identifier stored against the account details; iii) a decrypter for decrypting encrypted data received from the transactee; and iv) a replying module for replying to the transactee in response to a request to verify the biometric identifier and account details of the prospective transactor.