Panda Software Wednesday unveiled a service that lets banks and online merchants scan a consumer’s PC in memory for a few seconds to determine if resident malware could pose a threat to the e-commerce exchange.

Panda Security for Internet Transactions is a managed in-the-cloud service that relies on Panda’s ability to identify malware through both signature and behavior patterns. It works through an ActiveX-based scan to the consumer’s PC. “For business-to-consumer Web sites, it uses a 200K ActiveX [code] downloaded to the endpoint,” says Gary Leibowitz, general manager at Panda.

He says Bankinter, a bank in Spain, is the first to use the service.

If the scan discovers malware on the consumer PC, a number of response options are available to the bank or merchant using the service.

“The bank can decide to stop the transaction or send an alert,” says Leibowitz. The service does not involve deleting code from the consumer’s PC.

Pricing starts at $1.50 per user.