In an attempt to combat losses through fraud estimated to rise to over £500m a year by 2005, banks and retailers in Northampton have agreed to trial a system to replace signatures for card transactions with four-digit pin codes that the card holder enters into a counter top terminal. The scheme starts in spring but it is expected that it will be rolled out to all customers by 2005. By 2006 no cardholders in Britain will be able to use signatures for transactions and all businesses that handle face-to-face card transactions will have to accept the technology.