In a recent article, a Trade Union in Ireland stated: “People trust organisations like the post office and the credit union. However, the post office alone has a single, coherent accessible infrastructure that can deliver the banking solution that will help to achieve financial inclusion” Read more This article confirms that the two key factors [...]
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Should we Bank on Phones or the Post?
The financial inclusion community has been focusing on branchless banking over mobile without considering existing infrastructure like the Post. Today we highlight a brief from Microsave that asks whether we should be using phones or a physical network that already exists: the Post. At the end of the document, the author states: “Given a choice, those currently without [...]
Branch post office modernisation in India
New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Over 1 lakh branch post offices will be equipped with IT infrastructure by 2012-13, Parliament was informed today. “About 24,015 departmental post offices have been supplied with computer hardware. The remaining 1,279 departmental post offices and 1,29,497 branch post office of the Department would be equipped with Information Technology infrastructure [...]
Roadmap for Postal Financial Inclusion
During the last UPU Financial Inclusion Workshop in Bern, a group of stakeholders (Operators of champion countries, Financial Sector Regulating Authorities and Governments, Development Partners, Standards-Setting Bodies and UPU) agreed upon a Roadmap for Postal Financial Inclusion. The document includes the next steps the initiative should take together with the commitment of the stakeholders in [...]
Postal financial inclusion in Bangladesh
When a video says more than one thousand words. More on our new page covering the 2011 Postal Financial Inclusion Workshop.
PostFI to CGAP: Postal Banks Have the Potential to Open 1 Billion New Savings Accounts
Toward the end of the 19th century, postal services began to contribute to the development of a savings culture in many of today’s industrialized countries. And they are playing a similar role in developing and emerging countries at the dawn of the 21st century. A number of postal banks meet several of the key elements [...]
A well kept secret: posts in financial inclusion
By Marie-Odile Pilley The essential role of posts in financial inclusion remains a well-kept secret. Did you know that China Post Savings Bank on its own holds 30% of the accounts in China ? With deposits amounting to €2.700bn, the Japanese Post Bank remains the largest financial institution in the world. Japan Post Insurance manages [...]
How can post offices improve access to remittances and financial services in rural Africa?
By Sanket Mohapatra We have just released a Migration and Development brief prepared by our colleagues Jose Anson and Nils Clotteau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) based in Berne, Switzerland. There are an estimated 660,000 post offices in the world, larger than all bank branches combined. In this brief, Jose and Nils explore the [...]
It is spring time in the world of postal financial inclusion!
Guest contribution by Hans Boon New initiatives are seen in South America: in Ecuador and Uruguay the Posts have entered into new partnership agreements with banks to mobilize small savings and collect or distribute payments, while Brazil’s ECT Correios has launched the selection process for the strategic partner of Banco Postal. In Africa the developments [...]
In the news: a conference on postal financial services in Ouagadougou … and lot more
Guest contribution by Hans Boon Next week kicks off with a conference on development of Postal Financial Services in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. Organized by PAPU, the conference brings together operators, investors, regulators and policy makers from more than 60 countries and international institutions. It is a convincing sign that worldwide interest in Postal Financial [...]
