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With 20% of the global population still lacking access to financial accounts according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025, there is much opportunity for postal operators to fill the gap. That’s why the UPU is building momentum for postal financial inclusion with a targeted strategy capitalizing on win-win partnerships with the private sector.
“As customer needs continue to change, we are faced with an invigorating opportunity to leverage our network, our capabilities and our people – as one of the largest physical networks on our planet – to deliver novel services that help achieve global financial inclusion priorities,” says UPU Director General Masahiko Metoki.“Leveraging partnerships as a catalyst for innovation, knowledge sharing, capacity building and technical enablement, I believe the Post can become a leading provider of modern, affordable and inclusive financial access solutions. By supporting the UPU financial inclusion goals to provide digital payments, savings, inclusive insurance and microfinance services, Posts and partners can uplift and empower the underserved, develop resilient communities and drive socioeconomic development locally, nationally and globally," he adds.
Strategy for success
Partnerships are a key pillar of the UPU’s financial inclusion strategy, which relies on not only funding, but more importantly on expertise from partners to develop technical assistance programmes that help advance postal digital payments and savings, inclusive insurance and microfinance services. These technical assistance programmes help postal operators understand customer needs, gain insight into potential enablement models with partners, build capacity and literacy for staff and customers, and develop marketing plans to boost customer awareness and generate postal revenues from new services.
While postal operators benefit from innovations and expertise, partners benefit from the opportunity to reach new markets through brick-and-mortar postal outlets and the UPU’s close contact with regulators. Through their joint efforts, underserved populations – women, youth, small and medium-sized enterprises and smallholder farmers – gain access to competitive, consistent and compliant services, as well as financial education, protecting them from financial risks, including predatory service providers like loan sharks.
Progress on payments, savings and insurance
The strategy has already proven successful for payments and savings, with similar progress on inclusive insurance to follow in the short term.
Launched by the UPU with funding from Visa Inc. and the Gates Foundation in 2019, the UPU Financial Inclusion Technical Assistance Facility (FITAF) sought to help 20 postal operators implement digital payments and savings services. Those projects wrapped in 2023, engaging 5.3 million underserved postal customers, including 3.1 million women (Postal Networks: A Platform for Financial Inclusion Enablement, 2023).
Building on the programme’s success, Visa Europe Ltd. recently signed a five-year agreement to launch a second iteration, beginning initially with five pilot projects in 2026.
“We hope the next five years will deliver a repeatable model that successfully scales pilots into national programmes, positioning Posts as key enablers of government digital transformation and financial inclusion. For underserved populations, this can mean easier access to safe digital payments, government benefits, and remittances that arrive quickly and predictably,” says Louise Holden, Global Head of Partnerships with Visa Government Solutions.
In addition to expertise and funding for FITAF 2, the UPU and its members will benefit from the integration of Visa’s technology with the UPU’s postal payments system, including cybersecurity support.
“For Visa, the hope is that this partnership creates deeper, long-term relationships with public institutions that help accelerate responsible innovation. Ultimately, the shared prize is interoperable payment solutions that expand choice for postal customers, alongside a practical playbook that any member Post can adopt at its own pace,” says Holden.
On inclusive insurance, the UPU signed five-year agreements with both AXA and CNP Assurances – a subsidiary of France’s La Banque Postale. The partners have already laid the groundwork for technical assistance. After completing an AXA-UPU sponsored Global Inclusive Insurance Study, mapping out inclusive insurance customer needs, as well as existing postal insurance models and solutions around the globe in 2024, the Postal Insurance Technical Assistance Facility (PITAF) was launched in July 2025. The PITAF programme is being deployed in five pilot markets in 2026 and will support postal operators in creating, expanding, or diversifying their inclusive insurance solutions and services.
“AXA strongly believes that Posts are uniquely positioned to catalyze accessible, attractive, and affordable protection solutions for low‑to-middle income individuals and small businesses. To bring this vision to life, the collaboration between the UPU and AXA will pair the unmatched trust and reach of Posts with insurers’ risk management and product design expertise, contributing to advancing financial inclusion and resilience globally,” says AXA EssentiALL CEO Garance Wattez-Richard.
CNP Assurances Group Chief Sustainability Officer Rosana Techima adds, “Public–private partnerships like ours with the UPU combine the trust and reach of postal operators with the technical expertise and innovation of private insurers. Together, we can accelerate inclusive insurance solutions that meet the needs of communities that do not have easy access to insurance. For CNP Assurances, this collaboration strengthens our mission of protection for the greatest number of people as possible, while supporting Posts in diversifying services and enhancing their role in financial inclusion.”
Opportunities to advance microfinance
The UPU’s next target is microfinance. The organization has paired up with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management to gather research to assess postal readiness to offer microfinance services, determine the specific needs of underserved customers, and outline how partnerships can enable the provision of these services. The researchers are confident this is another win-win-win opportunity for Posts, partners and people.
Access to microfinance can help drive economic resilience for underserved populations. For MSMEs, this means the provision of funds to start or grow a business, and a lifeline to recover from economic shocks. It can provide women and youth with the opportunity to start their own businesses and pursue training. For smallholder farmers, postal microfinance can give them seasonal access to funds that help them boost productivity and manage climate-related risks. By joining forces, postal operators and private sector partners can help eliminate gaps preventing service delivery to these groups.
“Designated operators bring trust, reach, and physical infrastructure, while private-sector microfinance solution providers and fintechs contribute innovation, technology, risk management expertise and product development capabilities. When these strengths are combined effectively, they can significantly reduce the cost and complexity of delivering financial services to remote and underserved populations,” says Silke Mueffelmann, Head of the Frankfurt School’s Financial Inclusion & Social Entrepreneurship Competence Centre and Director of International Advisory Services.
“Partnerships are most effective when they combine digital efficiency with postal presence, rather than attempting to replace one with the other. Digital-only providers often struggle to reach rural, low-literacy, or cash-dependent populations, while postal networks alone face cost and scalability constraints. Partnerships allow each actor to focus on its comparative advantage.”
While still underway, the research is expected to map postal microfinance solution providers globally and provide a readiness toolkit that will prepare Posts and policymakers implement scalable postal microfinance models, including potential partners.
“A key area of analysis are the operational and partnership models through which designated operators engage in microfinance, including direct provision, agency banking, and partnerships with banks, microfinance institutions, and fintech providers,” Mueffelmann adds.
These research insights will form the basis of a future UPU postal microfinance technical assistance programme, like FITAF and PITAF, for which the UPU is currently exploring collaboration opportunities with prospective private sector partners.
This article first appeared in Union Postale Winter 2025/2026.