About 150 postal experts, policy makers, UPU delegates, regulators and representatives from the banking industry are at UPU headquarters today and tomorrow to look at how the postal network can help the world’s poor gain access to financial services.
Joëlle Toledano, from France’s postal regulator (ARCEP) and chair of the UPU’s postal economics project group, said that studies have shown that the viability of postal services depends on variety and that financial services represent an opportunity for posts. Furthermore, providing financial services through the postal network dispels the myth that postal physical services have no role to play in an electronic age.
In a video message, Jacques Attali, president of PlaNet Finance, said the postal network’s proximity to where the poor live was ideal for extending financial inclusion.
Gabriela Braun, from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), said that financial inclusion leads to jobs, health, education and social cohesion. The AFI’s goal is to bring 50 million people currently living on less than two dollars a day into the financial fold by 2012.
AFI’s Ernesto Aguirre said that the world is entering a new era for helping the poor access financial services. “We have a great opportunity for improving financial access through a combination of appropriate public policy and regulation, business cases and new technologies,” he said.
Brazil’s case is being examined thoroughly in the discussions. Through a partnership between this Post and one of the country’s largest private banks, previously underserved people have opened 7 million accounts at post offices since 2002. In Brazil, one third of municipalities have no banking agencies, leaving 45 million people without access to financial services, according to the Central Bank.financial services, according to the Central Bank.