PayPal now has 15m accounts in the UK - a third of the adult population and more than half of active internet shoppers.

Figures from Datamonitor estimate there are 24.9m online shoppers in the UK, spending an average of £600 each a year.

UK chief executive Geoff Iddison told the Reg: "We are growing faster than ecommerce in the UK. And these are not just user numbers but accounts connected to a specific bank account."

The online payment system can take and make payments in 103 markets and in seventeen currencies. Worldwide, PayPal made revenues of $350m by making transactions worth some $9.1bn.

It is going after more merchant accounts and also wants to get a slice of the £440m sent by UK residents to families abroad.

The company, bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5bn, has 123m account holders worldwide. ®