The ABC, after successfully battling the Queensland Department of Education's own Right to Information office, discovered that last year CBA paid the state's schools almost A$400,000 to sign children up to its "Dollarmites" banking program.The public broadcaster's Brisbane bureau has reported that its Right to Information request was twice rejected by the department earlier this year, on the grounds it would be a "breach of confidence" for the Commonwealth Bank. The Queensland education minister refused to intervene, citing the independence of the RTI officers' decision-making processBut on appeal, the Office of the Information Commissioner disagreed, deciding it was in the public interest for information on payments to be released.These documents disclosed the bank offers schools $200 a year for taking part, plus $100 for every 100 students who sign up and $5 for every 10 deposits made by a student. Payments to Queensland schools from the CBA ranged from $27 to $3,660. In total, payments added up to more than $392,000.Consumer group Choice accused the bank of funding the Dollarmite scheme as a cheap way to acquire future long-term CBA customers. "If this bank really cared about financial literacy, they'd put this money toward brand-free education initiatives," Choice spokeswoman Nicky Breen said.In response, a CBA spokeswoman told the ABC the payments were to compensate for the administration of the program and to cover the "dedicated time of the volunteers", adding that a cap was being introduced to limit contributions to $600 per school."Importantly, CBA's contributions to schools are not linked to the value of the deposits," she said.The spokeswoman also made the point that Queensland state schools run a tender process for their school banking programs, which are currently awarded to CBA and Bendigo Bank.