PayPal has seen the number of visitors to its UK Web site rise by 50% over the last 12 months, strengthening its position as the country's most popular financial portal.
According to stats from Internet market research outfit Nielsen Online, eBay subsidiary PayPal had 7.01 million unique visitors to its site in February, way ahead of second placed Money Saving Expert, on 4.75 million.
Lloyds TSB was the top bank, with 3.54 million unique visitors, followed by Barclays with 3.42, Halifax on 3.39 and HSBC with 2.89.
PayPal is even more dominant over other online payments sites, with the second most visited, Royal Bank of Scotland owned WorldPay receiving 1.14 million unique visitors. Independent contender Protx received 827,000 visitors whilst new Google Checkout attracted a modest 279,000.
Alex Burmaster, Nielsen Online, says: "PayPal continues to be far and away the most popular financial services website. The number of Unique Visitors accessing the PayPal site in the last 12 months has increased by an impressive 50%, meaning that PayPal has substantially improved its lead over other financial websites compared to the same time last year."
Last month eBay outlined plans to increase its focus on fast-growing PayPal, which is expected to double revenues within three years.
PayPal currently claims more than 70 million active accounts in 190 markets and 19 currencies, and says it expects revenue to double by 2011, hitting $4 billion to $5 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2008.