Post-office banking
put your money where your mail is
Topic of the article:
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The article is about the United States Postal Service (USPS),
the second largest employer in America with a workforce of just over 491,000 in
2013. Since the rise of e-mail makes people less use postal service, USPS has
to find new ways to raise revenues.
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This article introduces a
report suggesting that the post offices should begin offering financial
services for the people who cannot get fully access to financial services.
The simple reason is that a lot of Americans have scant access to banks and a
lot of post offices have little to do.
Main support:
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Over 1/4 American households
are unbanked or underbanked, meaning that they either lack a current or savings
account, or they have one but still use alternatives to banks such as
cheque-cashers and payday lenders. The average households spend around 9.5% of
their income on fees and interest charged by substitutes of banks.
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High-street banks find it hard
to make money serving poor customers, since they tend to have little money on
deposit that banks can lend out.
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These customers are distressed
so they need rescues from USPS. It has plenty of post offices in rural areas
that already provide some financial services such as money orders and
remittances to Latin American countries. That could save low-income customers
the financial cost.
Oppositions:
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Some refutes the proposal. They
insist that the Government overreaches itself and USPS should cut its size.
Others mention that it has zero capacity, understanding and capability of
financial services and state that post offices in rural areas have limited
value because financial services in rural areas are already enough and
convenient.
Additional support:
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Roughly 1 billion people in 50
countries have benefitted by their postal systems according to the Universal
Postal Union, the United Nations agency that helps post arrive on time.
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A World Bank study found last
year that postal banks are likelier than conventional ones to provide accounts
to those outside the financial main stream.
