We would like to offer our internet banking customers the option of receiving electronic monthly statements, replacing a paper copy. I know the E-sign act requires an affirmative acceptance -"opt-in" by the customer. Are there federal or state regulations to the Act requiring banks to have on file the customers' e-mail address in order to notify the customer that their statement is available for them to download?

Thank you.

No. There is no such requirement. It would be sufficient to informa your customer of the approximate time of each month/quarter to expect that the statement would be available.

That said, the majority of businesses that provide e-statements announce their availability by email each period.

Is there any requirement that we begin to mail statements if the customer has not opened their estatement? and if so can we charge for this?

No such requirement. Once you have a customer correctly signed up under E-Sign (and that's no small task), think of the e-statement as the bits and bytes equivalent of the paper statement you would have mailed out. You don't do anything about the customer who doesn't open his mailed statement do you? Then you would not need to if the customer doesn't open the e-envelope.