The only way to curb the growing problem of online fraud is to educate the consumer, financial software firm eWise has said this week.

Mark Matthews, eWise's managing director, described how its new system differs to existing online payment systems by taking the consumer directly to their own bank's site, rather than requiring them to pre-register any card details online.

He said: "They don't enter their card details online [and] the merchant doesn't hold any financial information about the consumer.

"With our system…there's no storage of consumer financial information. And none of that information is passed to the merchant. So we manage the whole payment system."

Mr Matthews added that educating the consumer will further improve the situation as, eWise has found by working with Egg and First Direct, "the point of risk lies with the consumer".

The UK's payments association, Apacs, issued a report recently which revealed that nearly 15 million people in the UK now use the internet to access their bank accounts.

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