American bank encouraging e-payments

This week Michigan-based Charter One Bank announced that it will immediately begin paying new and existing retail checking account customers who enroll in its Green$ense program 10 cents for every electronic payment they make, up to $10 per month and $120 per year.

The initiative is intended to contribute to the sector and reduce paper transactions. Adil Moussa, an analyst at Aite Group, a financial services research firm in Boston notes that the bank will benefit from more frequent use of their debit cards as it earns fees from merchants for these transactions.

The expert thinks that the program will have some resonance with a lot of customers because the bank is apparently to profit from it. Different kind of sweepstakes programs were already trialed by other banks to encourage electronic payments.

As per expectations of Charter's parent company, Citizens Financial Group Inc. one million customers will likely be subscribed to Green$ense.