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 [...]
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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 [...]
As Traditional Services Go Digital, India Post Finds New Life as an Insurance Provider
Three decades ago, Tilak Ram was a mere part-time employee at India Post. Technically a Gramin Dak Sevak — an “extra departmental employee” — he has come a long way since. Today, Ram’s spartan office-cum-home in rural Laksar, in the northern state of Uttaranchal, is constantly bustling with people. The 53 year-old Ram is a [...]
Starting 2011 with good news for postal financial inclusion
The latest issue of the Post Financial Times covers a lot of good news in relation to postal financial inclusion: the “postbanks” in New Zealand and Slovak Republic have been rated as “Bank of the Year 2010” the Thai Cabinet resolved on establishment of a Postbank to extend microfinance the Polish Postbank is rapidly expanding its [...]
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,800 times in 2010. That’s about [...]
CGAP: Banco Postal a high profile pioneer in branchess banking
According to CGAP’s technology blog, Banco Postal is a high profile pioneer in branchless banking. Read more here. More particularly, CGAP highlights: “And branchless banking is scaling faster than microfinance institutions (MFIs). The branchless banking services needed 3 years to surpass the outreach of the largest MFI in the same market, which on average operated [...]
DSK: postal financial services recognized by G20
Financial inclusion was the buzz word during last UPU Strategy Conference in Nairobi last week. DSK also believes in a very important role for postal financial services. Watch DSK’s address to UPU member countries during the Strategy Conference. In his view, postal services provide a kind of “public good” that globalization needs.
Postal Banks: Wanted by Poor, He Felt … 100 Years Ago
The New York Times (NYT) online archives recently led us to one of these extraordinary re-discoveries of history. “Wanted by Poor, He Felt”: this was the sub-title of NYT’s article on the approval of the postal bank bill by U.S. Senate in June 1910. At that time, President Taft (Republican) “felt that it is to these [...]
Post or PostFinance: Google tells it
Swiss Post has just revealed that PostFinance, its financial services division, has increased its profit by 37% to CHF 274m during the first six months of 2010. The number of depositors and accounts is steadily increasing even after the pick of the financial crisis and now reaches almost 4 million accounts in a country of little more than [...]
