Their trust, their unparalleled reach and 150 years' experience in providing savings services all make the Posts an ideal provider of financial services to the poor. This is what a joint UPU-Alliance for Financial Inclusion workshop revealed this week in Berne.
Joëlle Toledano, from France's regulator ARCEP and chair of the postal economic project group, said the workshop clearly showed that Posts everywhere can play a major role in financial inclusion. "With examples coming from many developing countries, it's clear that Posts can bring financial services closer to the population."
Countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Azerbaijan, South Africa and others presented their business models and policies of opening up financial access. Speakers and attendees included representatives from Posts, central banks and non-governmental organizations.
Rodrigo Figueiró de Andrade, from the Brazilian Post's Banco Postal, which has brought financial services to millions of people, said that all countries have a forgotten population. Posts can capitalize on the fact that these people have a close relationship to the postal service. "They respect the Post more than banks."
A central banker like Sandip Ghose of the Reserve Bank of India, agreed that the Post is a trusted party among the poor. "When the Post sends a letter carrier on his bike into an Indian village, the villagers are happy to see him." He added, however, that there were still gaps in bringing financial inclusion to the poorest of the poor. "This workshop is very important for filling in those gaps. I am happy to listen and to take lessons back to India, where a large amount of poverty still exists:" he said.
Tamara Cook from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said that the conference presented the Posts’ case for providing financial services to the poor.
"Clearly, post offices can provide savings accounts to the everyday man. I am here to learn about access and affordability of these services." She added that the Posts are often overlooked when cross-sectoral players considered the global issue of financial inclusion and the workshop was an important way of redressing this.
Salao Aboubakar from the banking commission of Central Africa (COBAC) said that financial inclusion was an important issue for its member countries. These have 45 million inhabitants of which only four per cent have access to banking services.
“For us, the postal network should participate in bringing financial services if they are functioning well,” he said. “This workshop has served to re-launch the debate on financial inclusion in our countries,” he added.
The German Technical Cooperation’s Michael Roth said he was attending to better understand the postal network and learn about the UPU. “There are many different approaches presented here and the workshop is a compendium of best practices,” he said.