Role of Post Offices in Remittances and Financial Inclusion
MigrationandDevelopmentBrief15
Introduction Worldwide, posts have been active in the field of financial services since the 19th century. The first postal savings bank was created in 1861 in the United Kingdom, and an intergovernmental treaty on international postal money orders (MOs) was first signed by the member countries of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1878. According to former U.S. President Taft, promoter of the United States Postal Savings System (in operation 1911–67), “it is to these poorer people in the United States that the Postal Banks will appeal and it will encourage the saving of money by them” (
In spite of this history and a number of recent success stories, posts—for various reasons linked mainly to their somewhat outdated image—are often forgotten when it comes to designing and implementing financial sector development strategies or analyzing remittance markets. This paper attempts to present why posts should be seen as partners of choice in financial inclusion policies.
New York Times, June 23, 1910).
