The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has joined the Better Than Cash Alliance, firming its commitment to encourage the migration of cash to electronic payments as part of the leading global network of governments, companies and international organizations on digital payments.
The UPU has been promoting and supporting the shift from cash to electronic payments for many years, as paper money orders become obsolete and new technologies enable the development of a worldwide electronic postal payment network among the national Posts of its 192 member countries.
As a Better Than Cash Alliance member, the UPU will continue to further its work in this area, while benefiting from knowledge, expertise and opportunities for collaboration with other members.
Bishar A. Hussein, the UPU’s director general, says modern services are essential for bringing citizens into the financial fold and lifting people out of poverty. Post offices worldwide, he says, can play an important role in achieving this goal.
“The global network of more than 660,000 post offices – many of which are located in rural areas – is an important channel for formal remittance services and other financial offerings. Moving these transactions from cash to electronic payment not only ensures the money gets into the right hands, but it provides better protection for consumers, makes money movements transparent and creates more opportunities to better reach and serve the un- and under-banked.”
Dr Ruth Goodwin-Groen, managing director of the Better Than Cash Alliance, concurs. “The UPU is in a unique position to promote and support its members in the shift from cash to electronic payments. We applaud the work that the UPU has already undertaken to advance this transition and the steps it is taking to bring post offices globally into the 21th century. The Better Than Cash Alliance looks forward to supporting the UPU’s continued commitment and sharing their expertise with our broader Alliance members.”
Some 70 Posts use the UPU’s International Financial System, a software created and managed by the UN agency’s Postal Technology Centre, to offer digital remittance services. More than 50 Posts also offer account-based financial services, managing more than 1.6 billion savings and deposit accounts, and several hundred million people also use the post to pay government or utility bills.
In 2013, according to UPU statistics, postal financial services accounted for almost 14.5% of global postal revenues worth almost 346 billion dollars. In several countries, such as China, India and Italy, postal financial services generate more than 50% of the Post’s revenues.
As letter-post volumes continue their downward trend, Posts are increasingly diversifying their business and developing postal financial services as part of their strategies. Through the BTCA, the UPU will be able to further support its member countries and designated operators in their strategic and business approach.
The UPU increasingly works hand in hand with international organizations, lending institutions and donors to make remittances more accessible to the most disadvantaged populations. In recent years, projects with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the European Union and PlaNet Finance have enabled such postal services to be developed or extended in rural areas of Africa, Asia and Central Asia. Both IFAD and BMGF are members of the Better Than Cash Alliance.
As a global forum for dialogue and cooperation, the UPU also organizes regular forums that explore financial models and how new technologies such as mobile banking can be used to further national and global financial inclusion goals. It was at the UPU’s global forum on mobile technologies as a catalyst for financial inclusion by Posts, held in November 2014, that the UPU and the Better Than Cash Alliance held discussions firming up their collaboration. The UPU’s Council of Administration, made up of 41 member countries, then formally approved the decision to join the Alliance and establish formal relations between the two entities.
The UPU is the fourth UN agency to join the Alliance after the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
About the UPU
The Universal Postal Union is an intergovernmental organization and the primary forum for cooperation between governments, Posts and other stakeholders of the global postal sector. In addition to maintaining a genuinely universal network that provides modern products and services, it establishes the rules for international mail exchanges among its 192 members and makes recommendations to stimulate mail volume growth and to improve the quality of service for customers. In 2013, some 5.4 million employees processed and delivered 340 billion domestic and international letter-post items and 6.7 billion parcels. Many postal services also offer expedited mail, financial and electronic services. Some 663,000 postal establishments make the postal network the largest physical distribution network in the world. The UPU is a specialized agency of the United Nations since 1948. To learn more, visit www.upu.int or http://news.upu.int and subscribe for news.
About the Better Than Cash Alliance
The Better Than Cash Alliance is an initiative that works with governments, the development community and the private sector to transition from cash to electronic payments. With 35 members from around the world, Better Than Cash Alliance is hosted by the United Nations Capital Development Fund and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, MasterCard, Omidyar Network, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Visa Inc. To learn more, visit www.betterthancash.org, follow @BetterThan_Cash and subscribe for news.
Media contact
Rhéal LeBlanc, Universal Postal Union, Berne, Switzerland: +41 31 350 32 51 (work) / +41 79 345 97 64 (mobile) - rheal.leblanc@upu.int
Sabrina Sidhu, Better Than Cash Alliance, New York, U.S.A.: +1 646 662 71 86 - sabrina.sidhu@uncdf.org