Fashion retailer Kookai has just received Acquirer Acceptance Testing (AAT) from the HSBC Bank, and will now 'go live' with a fully-integrated EPoS and Chip and PIN system as part of a joint project managed in conjunction with Anker Systems and valued in the region of £100,000.
Anker will initially incorporate Chip and PIN at Kookai's store in London's famous Kensington High Street, following on with a complete roll-out to 27 stores right across the country. This makes Kookai one of the very first High Street retailers to go live with a fully-integrated EPoS and Chip and PIN system since the Northampton-based trials of the technology were first conducted.

A substantial percentage of Kookai's annual turnover is generated from credit card transactions, so it was important that the retailer began using Chip and PIN technology well ahead of the January 2005 deadline (when liability for credit card fraud will move across from the banks to the retailers).

Kookai's own Chip and PIN solution is based on an EPoS system supplied by Anker with embedded software (designated 'SmartSwitch') courtesy of Retail Logic. This enables the full processing and management of credit and debit card transactions from initial payment through to authorisation.

Peter Mila – Kookai's director of IT security – told SMT: "We've tried to adopt a proactive stance on Chip and PIN from the outset. The accreditation process is very time-consuming, with conflicting interpretations of standards and limited testing resources. Unfortunately, far too many retailers are neglecting the fact that their network infrastructures will need to be upgraded, and they'll undoubtedly struggle to meet next year's deadline for implementation. For our part, we're desperate to avoid any last-minute rush."

Source

SMT