Bank One Corp. became the second major bank to make electronic bills available to its on-line customer base April 14, through a third party provider Checkfree Corp. It followed First Union Corp. by about six months.

On the same day, BankAmerica Corp. officially introduced its own system that it called “comprehensive electronic bill presentment and payment solutions” that could reach all 32 million of its business and consumer customers (see previous story).

Through Checkfree, Bank One’s 310,000 on-line customers can elect to receive bills over the Internet from some of the corporations signed up to send Checkfree’s e-bills.

Bank One is hoping that on-line presentments will encourage more of its customers to pay that way. Currently, 20% to 25% of its on-line banking customers use the bill payment offering.

Bank One’s financial arrangement with Checkfree remained unchanged with the addition of presentment services, said Bruce A. Luecke, president of interactive delivery services in Bank One’s retail group. Bank One is not charging its customers beyond the $4.95 they already pay for bill payment. Basic on-line banking is free.

The Chicago-based banking company is the first to use the Checkfree service through the Integrion Financial Network.

Bank One does not plan to work exclusively with Checkfree, Luecke emphasized. “We want to be able to present as many bills as we can.”

Forty-three corporations have signed contracts to have Checkfree deliver their electronic bills. So far, only a handful, including MCI Worldcom and BellSouth, are sending such bills, a spokeswoman said.

Fifteen of the 43 have agreed to deliver their bills to Bank One. Seven are listed on its Web site, including American Electric Power, BellSouth, Consumers Energy, HomeSide Lending, and MCI WorldCom.

“I don’t believe by working with a single presentment provider that any bank will be as successful as it can be,” Luecke said. “You have to be as open as possible.”

He said he would like to see more providers enter the market. Bank One has completed the first phase of a pilot with Transpoint, the other main presentment service provider, but a second phase has not been scheduled, Luecke said. — Chris Costanzo, American Banker