More than 25 million debit and credit cards in the UK have been registered with MasterCard and Visa secure online payment systems, according to Apacs.
The trade association for payments claims that cardholder registration with MasterCard's SecureCode and Verified with Visa has increased by 150 per cent in the last year and by almost 600 per cent in the last two years.
According to Apacs, the schemes offer greater protection to users against unauthorised use of their card for online purchases.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said: "Shopping online is now very much part of our everyday life."
"This is an important milestone as it means that more than half of all online shoppers have now registered their cards," she added.
Meanwhile, SecureTrading, an independent internet payment service, has launched a range of counter-fraud tools at an event in London which it hopes will work alongside existing security products to reduce fraud.
