The ability to opt out of paper statements has been extended to eligible credit card accounts. This feature was first made available for eligible savings and transaction accounts in June 2005. Instead of a paper statement, customers receive an email notification every time their statement is ready to view through Online Banking.

To further encourage customers to opt out of paper statements, the length of online statement history has also been increased from 18 months to seven years.

"Our e-statements initiative is just over 12 months old, and we remain the only major bank in Australia to allow our customers to opt-out of receiving paper statements," Graham Paterson, Westpac's Head of Corporate Responsibility, said.

"The extension of e-statements to credit cards is the natural next step, and provides even more of our customers with the choice to stop their paper statements and instead view them online.

"A recent study by Forrester Research shows that credit cards are the most popular type of e-statement, so we expect the number of customers opting out of paper statements to continue to increase dramatically.

"The increase in online statement history to seven years is also expected to entice a lot more customers towards opting out of their paper statements. Forrester Research confirms that one of the main reasons customers have not adopted e-statements is that they need the paper version for their records.

"With almost 90% of Australians expressing concern about the environment(2) Westpac is committed to providing our customers with an environmentally sound option for both services such as statements and products such as the Westpac Landcare Term Deposit and our recently announced green mortgage," Graham said.