A new Irish payment technologies company has made a breakthrough in offering secure Internet credit card payment services - one of the biggest obstacles to e-commerce.

The development is generating significant interest in the financial services industry, which has been extremely cautious about adopting e-commerce.

Last week Orbiscom completed a $15 million (€15.6 million) fund-raising, which it says places a value on the company of $200 million.

AIB has taken a 5.1 per cent stake in the company, and is operating in conjunction with Orbiscom technology. It has developed a system where people wishing to buy goods and services online conduct every transaction using randomly chosen credit card numbers issued by their bank.

When the transaction details are returned to the bank, it automatically recognises which cardholder the random number belongs to, and conducts the payment in the usual manner. Through this method the cardholder's details are never released across the Internet.

The primary shareholders in Orbiscom are Mr Graham O'Donnell and Dr Ian Flitcroft who co-founded Orbis in 1998. They hold around 60 per cent of the company equity.