Thursday, October 15, 2009

A Postal Bank?

IMG_3028Image by Cat Sidh via Flickr
One of the ideas floating around is to allow the Postal Service to get into banking. With more than 30,000 branches already, USPS could be a quasi-national bank.

Many foreign postal administrations are already into banking. In fact, Italian Post makes more money from banking than it does mail.

The PMG sees political challenges, but is still open to the possiblity.

"I'm not saying that's going to work in America, but we need to be open-minded about what else might be out there," Potter said. "It's something we're looking at and have been looking at over the years."

So, what do you think about the idea?
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The reality is we couldn't do worse than the current big banking institutions....and they are still making money! Interesting concept.

Anonymous said...

The Postal Service needs to make a major shift from mail only, whatever that shift may be. The cycle of declining revenue from mail and increasing expenses will lead to the ultimate demise of the Postal Service unless something significant is done within the very near future.

Anonymous said...

US lacks a federally owned complete banking like many other countries do and I am sure it will sure convince Congress as a Public Option in Banking like they were talking about in Health Care. There is Federal Reserve bank but it is not open for general public. We can also bring drastic competition to all these private banks who loot public money through high bonus and later also get Billion of Dollar for bailouts for do a poor job of investments. In USPS every work very hard and get no help despite the fact that we have saved billions of dollars year to year despite the losses and need to service more people than before.

Merk said...

I think it would be convenient for many customers, especially those in small towns. I can see some concerns about the increase in funds we'll have to have at our windows (increasing the possibility of errors, losses, robberies, etc.) I think we need to look at any and all additional services to make us fiscally sound again.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Merk about the concern of having larger amounts of cash on hand, but the value to our customers would be great. The only bank in my town closed two years ago, and it was a great blow to the community. Since we are already in every community, we could provide a great convenience to our customers.

Grannybunny said...

When I was a child -- back in the 1950's -- I believe we could bank at the Post Office, or, at least, buy U. S. Savings Bonds. Someone help me out here.

Anonymous said...

I think the Post Office should offer a savings plan for small savers. The Federal Government should come up with some instrument that is geared to the small saver similar to the Postal Savings stamps of the past (maybe a variation of the US Savings Bond?). This could increase the savings rate in this country (which is very low)and certainly would be easily accessible to the majority of people (probably more convenient than going to the bank).
Accessibility and convenience should be emphasized when advertised new services.

Anonymous said...

I think its a great Idea, Back in the Department of Post Office days
a person could purchase a Postal
Bond, It may be a chance for employees save some money and help
the company.

Anonymous said...

I could see this work. I used to work in a bank, in a variety of departments. At least get into paying utility bills, cashing checks, and making deposits.

Anonymous said...

AS i wrote previously, the idea of selling bonds would appeal to many people. I am not sure of the banking because of the saturation in the supermarkets already.

Anonymous said...

Out of curiosity, does anyone recall the recent quasi-failures of fannie mae and freddie mac, both quasi governmental.

i agree that banking would be a plus, but let's face facts: so long as we are not private and fully competing in the market, we will always be seen as a government entity. based on our track record thus far, i certainly would not move my accounts any time soon

Anonymous said...

We are here to provide service to the American people. To survive as an organization we need to do whatever would help support the American people. We have been around a long time and evolved along with our history so whatever it takes....let's keep rollin'

Anonymous said...

I think we should seriously think about it. Here in Alaska especially in bush Alaska the Post Office is like a bank.