One of the Island's major banks has taken marketing in the retail banking sector to a new level of agressiveness by singing up people for unsolicited bank accounts and credit cards.

The offer, which included a $50 deposit into the peoples' new savings accounts, was launched by Bank of Butterfield and intended to lure people to its Internet banking service.

A surprised lawyer - one of the people signed up - thought the bank had made a mistake when a statement for a chequing account arrived at his Cox Hallett Wilkinson office last week. The long-time Bank of Bermuda customer has never held an account with Bank of Butterfield - until Tuesday, when he received an unsolicited package from the bank containing a Gold MasterCard, a debit card and a letter from the bank's president and chief executive officer, Calum Johnston.

"We have taken the liberty of setting up new accounts in your name," Mr. Johnston wrote, "and have provided you with immediate access to Butterfield Direct, our Internet banking service.

"I hope you will take advantage of this exclusive opportunity to find out how banking can be more convenient than you ever thought possible - just give us a try. We're confident you won't look back."

The lawyer was one of a small number of people who received the packets, according to Butterfield's vice president of retail banking, Lloyd Wiggan. In addition to the Internet banking service, the bank signed up each recipient for a chequing account with $5,000 of overdraft protection, the savings account with a $50 balance and the MasterCard, which has a $10,000 credit limit. It also gave them the option of using Butterfield Premium, a private banking service.

To activate the accounts, the customers simply have to call a customer service representative at the bank and sign and mail an account opening form - with many of the fields already completed by a bank employee - within 60 days.

Most people, as one new Bank of Butterfield customer recalled, have to visit a bank branch and disclose their income to open even a savings account, and then wait ten days before they can use Butterfield Direct.

Bank of Butterfield could not set up fully operational accounts without customers' approval because legislation requires banks to know their clients. There are also fees associated with the accounts: the MasterCard costs $50 a year, a chequing account $6 a month and Butterfield Premium $25 a month. The bank did not include any information about service fees in its promotional packet in its promotional packet, but it said it expects to have direct contact with people who are interested in its offer.

The marketing ploy, which is unprecedented in Bermuda, is part of a strategy by Butterfield to attract customers to Butterfield Direct, which debuted in March. "We are keen to give our Internet banking product maximum exposure," Mr. Wiggan said. He said the $50 deposited into savings account was not an inducement, but a way of allowing customers to try the online banking service by, for instance, transferring funds between their two accounts.

The strategy surprised Dal Tucker and Alvin Wilson, the president and vice president of Bermuda Financial Network and both former bank employees.

"That is totally out of Bermuda's banking habits," said Mr. Tucker, who worked for fifteen years at both the Bank of Bermuda and the Bank of Butterfield.

"It's very aggressive," Mr. Wilson, a former Bank of Bermuda employee, added. "Possibly progressive."

While at the Bank of Bermuda, Mr. Tucker launched the Visa Gold card in the early 1990s. "We sent pre-approved applications to top level customers," he said - but never an actual card.

Sending a working card to customers, they added, is even aggressive by US standards. There, credit card issuers flood some consumers' mailboxes with credit card applications touting low introductory interest rates and pre-set spending limits.

Mr. Wiggan, however, disagreed. He said pre-authorised accounts and cards are "a common marketing strategy in the US," and the bank does "not consider that we are being overly intrusive."

"This current campaign makes it more convenient for those customers who want to sign up for our...products," he explained.

The partners, who praised the bank for adopting such a direct approach, said it was natural for the bank to want to increase his business. "Hopefully this will encourage smaller businesses to make bold forays into the market," Mr. Wilson said.

But Mr. Tucker added that the banks normally have gentlemen's agreements not to steal customers. A Bank of Bermuda spokesperson refused to comment on its competitor's marketing strategy.

Mr. Tucker said Butterfield was likely exploiting its competitive advantage over the Bank of Bermuda, which does not yet have an Internet banking platform for personal customers.

"Because they've got Butterfield Direct, they have a competitive advantage in the short run and so they can poach customers," said Mr. Tucker. "They couldn't do that if Bank of Bermuda had the same facilities as them."

Although it is free for customers to use, Butterfield Direct is a gateway to the bank's other fee-earning services, including wire transfers, bank drafts. When customers make utility payments online, as through automated teller machines, it levies a fee against the companies. The service also encourages customers to conduct transactions on their own electronically rather than with the help of a relatively costly teller.

The pair expects Bank of Bermuda, which introduced a commercial Internet banking service before Butterfield Direct debuted, to launch a individual Internet banking product by the end of April. But they do not expect Bank of Bermuda to copy the marketing strategy of its rival. "It would be against their corporate culture," Mr. Wilson said.

Butterfield would not specify exactly how many people it signed up for new accounts or how it selected the recipients, although Mr. Wiggan said they included existing and non-Bank of Butterfield customers.

The lawyer was the only partner at his firm to receive the package - which leads Mr. Tucker to believe that he may have been part of a test to determine how customers respond to such assertive marketing.

The response, the business partners agree, will likely not be as positive as the bank hopes.

"I think most Bermudians are turned off by hard sells," Mr. Wilson said.

Mr. Tucker added: "The upper-level people are going to be insulted by the $50."

And the surprised recipient of the offer - an admitted technophobe who is not interested in banking online - plans to keep his money put.