Kiwis could soon be able to make purchases using their face or hand, without the need for a card.

EFTPOS New Zealand is rolling out new Verifone Victa biometric payment terminals that will allow people to pay with their faces or palms - without cards.

The new tech can also act as an age verification tool in stores that sell liquor and vapes, for example, or automatically load up people's loyalty programmes.

Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said when she first heard about the tech, she was "like, wow".

"I can use my face. How's my face going to know my bank account?" she told RNZ’s Morning Report programme on Thursday.

"But I think if we think a little bit, there's some biometric payments that already take place.

“So for example, I often read books on my iPad. I bought a book last night after I'd finished another book and my confirmation of payment was my fingerprint because my card is already loaded into my iPad and it says 'confirm, press your fingerprint here' and I press my fingerprint, that's a biometric payment. So the details are already there."

According to EFTPOS NZ, the tech "will enable age verification, digital identity and secure payments to happen in a single interaction at the terminal, without the need for physical documents" and "reduce the burden on frontline staff and the risk of human error".

Young said it could speed up transactions, particularly in buying restricted items such as vapes or alcohol, and when a person is a member of a loyalty scheme.

"Say you belong to the Farmers loyalty programme, and you're at the counter at the moment and they ask you if you belong to the loyalty programme and you give them your email address or phone number.

"If your data that's already on your phone - that includes your email - is hooked in appropriately, you don't have to publicly give that, or the intention is that you won't have to publicly give that to someone else in the line… it would pass through seamlessly."

Proof-of-concept trials had been carried out, EFTPOS NZ said. The new terminals run on Android, like phones and tablets, and can run third-party applications.

EFTPOS NZ said biometric capabilities could be "deployed by retailers who wish to use biometrics, at a time frame that suits them and through their preferred supplier".

The data "sits with their chosen consumer platform, governed by the same privacy regulations that apply to any other digital service", Kristy Gregory, head of merchant sales and strategic partners, told the New Zealand Herald.

Asked if there were valid privacy concerns around the tech, Young said there was "quite a lot of education and language that needs to be used so that everybody understands what it means".