Today the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) published a major report which examines the feasibility of adding financial and banking services at Canada Post Corporation. The report, entitled, Why Canada Needs Postal Banking, provides compelling evidence that Canada Post is well placed to fulfill the need for improved financial and banking services.

The CCPA study looks at the changing banking environment as well as our post office’s own experience with banking. In addition, it reviews the status of postal banking around the world, highlighting five successful models in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand. CUPW has done its own research concerning international postal banking but decided to ask for an independent perspective concerning the feasibility of initiating banking and financial services at Canada Post. As a result, we commissioned this study by the CCPA.

Having established that there is a need for improved financial services in our country and that there are viable models in other countries, the study concludes by suggesting five possible models for postal banking in Canada:

• Create a non-chartered bank — a Canada Post-owned subsidiary — to deliver financial services.
• Create a chartered bank wholly owned by Canada Post.
• Create a bank to deliver some of the services and partner with banks and others to deliver the rest.
• Create a national credit union or mutual to deliver the financial services in partnership with Canada Post.
• Partner directly with one or more financial institution to deliver financial and banking services.

The report concludes by recommending that the federal government and Canada Post immediately establish a task force to determine how to deliver new financial services, and establish priorities for delivering new products. The report was written by John Anderson. As former director of Parliamentary Affairs for the NDP federal caucus and former director of government affairs and public policy at the Canadian Cooperative Association, Anderson has excellent credentials to research and analyze issues concerning financial and banking services.

You can find the entire report HERE.

In solidarity,

Denis Lemelin
National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers