European consumers have hit out at banks and credit card companies, claiming that not enough is being done to safeguard personal information online.

A pan-European YouGov survey, commissioned by VeriSign, showed that European online users visit their bank website most often, followed by retail shopping sites.

Some 80 per cent of surfers in Denmark, 77 per cent in Sweden, 72 per cent in France, 65 per cent in the UK and 57 per cent in Germany log-on to websites where they share personal information at least once a week.

More than half of the UK population do not believe that institutions such as the government and banks are doing enough to safeguard personal information online.

Nearly half of the German population also responded with similar sentiments, followed by Sweden (31 per cent), France (27 per cent) and Denmark (20 per cent).

The research also asked who should be responsible for protecting personal information online.

At least half of respondents in each of the countries felt that it was the responsibility of banks, credit card companies and retail websites.

Jon Kerr, SSL manager at VeriSign, said: "We are seeing more and more theft of consumers' personal information.

"The study shows that online customers are becoming more aware of the risks involved in passing on their details over sites that may not be secure.

"It is the organisations that will fail to benefit as they will lose out on an increasingly sceptical customer base who expect their online safety to be taken care of."