Postal Banking Lite: Expanded Remittances, Check Cashing on Tap
It was an ambitious vision-millions of Americans receiving their paychecks on Postal Service prepaid cards, and heading to their neighborhood post office for affordable small-dollar loans-and now it's been chopped down to size. In a January 2014 report, the U.S. Postal Service's office of...
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| Published in: | Credit Union Journal 2015-06, Vol.19 (11), p.3 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | It was an ambitious vision-millions of Americans receiving their paychecks on Postal Service prepaid cards, and heading to their neighborhood post office for affordable small-dollar loans-and now it's been chopped down to size. In a January 2014 report, the U.S. Postal Service's office of inspector general foresaw the nationwide mail carrier competing against high-cost payday lenders, and perhaps directly against credit unions and banks, too. Those ideas sparked a big debate about the proper role of the public sector versus the private sector in financial services. The follow-up report that was recently released offers something of a reality check. Congress has long set limits on what the post office is allowed to sell, and there was never much reason to think that small-dollar loans and deposit products would be added to that approved list, at least anytime soon. The new report from the postal IG's office acknowledges that its big ideas from last year are unlikely to be approved under current law. So it focuses instead on a smaller set of moves that might allow the Postal Service to establish a toehold in the U.S. consumer finance market. |
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| ISSN: | 1521-5105 |