Financial inclusion and postal regulation are key topics at the 2009 session of the UPU’s Council of Administration, which started this week.
On November 9 and 10, a UPU workshop supported by the Bangkok-based Alliance for Financial Inclusion will look at how Posts could expand financial inclusion to people living isolated areas of developing countries, where no financial institution exists.
With more than 650,000 post offices worldwide, many Posts, including those of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are already filling an important void in this area.
More than seven million accounts have been opened at Brazilian post offices since 2002, when the Post partnered with one of the country’s leading banks to offer financial services to people until then excluded from any financial system. And the Chinese Post has already extended 1.2 million loans to small entrepreneurs in a little over a year through a microfinance scheme supported by the German cooperation agency.
Experts will share their experience and discuss how Posts could become agents for expanding financial access to the poor. Representatives from regulators, central banks and donors and foundations will also take part.
Organizing the market
A forum on postal regulation on November 12 will examine how postal markets can be organized according to different regulatory models. Participants will also talk about financing the universal postal service and the impact of market liberalization at the national and international levels.
Top-level experts talking at the forum will include Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the United States Postal Service (USPS). The USPS currently faces various challenges in the face of historic mail declines. Experts from Argentina, China, the European Commission, Russia and UNI Global, among others, will also take part.