Tag: Europe

Deutsche Bank signs postal banking deal in China

Posted by | Oct 8, 2007 | |

Deutsche Bank recently announced a partnership with Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), the fifth largest bank in China by deposits, for the provision of payment clearing channels to manage US dollar clearing and remittances into China.

PSBC has more than 36,000 retail locations across China of which two-thirds are in rural areas. As one of the world’s top receivers of remittances, PSBC was looking for a banking partner to address the challenge of providing efficient and cost-effective remittances to beneficiaries across China’s extensive geography.

Deutsche is deploying Money Transfer New Architecture (MTNA), its proprietary global payment platform which is designed for large-scale remittance transactions and will manage US dollar and local remittances in a highly automated process.

“MTNA’s built-in features offer customization which includes sophisticated reference matching, party search engine, full transparency and online payment status, allowing PSBC to reap the benefits of expedited processing, increased transaction accuracy and cost effectiveness,” Deutsche said in a statement.

The partnership will enable PSBC to offer faster and simplified remittance cycles that, in turn, benefit retail customers. This also strengthens PSBC’s presence both locally and abroad.

John Ball, head of cash management for financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific at Deutsche, adds: “Working with Postal Savings Bank of China offered us the opportunity to demonstrate our state-of-the-art and innovative cash management solutions. It is also reflective of the bank’s commitment to Postal Savings Bank of China, supporting its growth plans and enhancing its competitiveness in capturing the burgeoning retail market for direct remittances. This is another milestone for the bank in the high-volume industry of postal banking.”

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Postal productivity targets need to be more aggressive

Posted by | Oct 8, 2007 | |

The following is a perspective by PostCom Vice President Kate Muth for the PostCom Bulletin. The views expressed are solely the author’s. PostCom welcomes alternative views from responsible parties.

Most industry eyes were on the Postal Service’s bottom line last week when it released its Integrated Financial Plan for Fiscal Year 2008. Industry scoured the plan and listened to commentary about it for any hint regarding the next rate increase. This is the first financial and operating plan designed to accommodate the way the Postal Service will operate under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA).

Observers were anxious to see how much volume and revenue growth the Postal Service projects in FY 2008 and where it sees its costs are headed. PostCom members are eager to see a comprehensive revenue-generation plan from the Postal Service. Many would also like to see the USPS’ productivity growth increase significantly. It’s true that the Postal Service can’t rely only on cost-cutting to achieve prosperity, but it can boost its productivity target.

The Postal Service has set as its total factor productivity (TFP) target for FY 2008 a growth of 1 percent. This would mark the ninth straight year of productivity growth for the organization. In its FY 2007 integrated financial plan, released last year at this time, the Postal Service set as its total factor productivity goal an increase of only 0.6 pct. Its final number for FY 2007 should surpass that target, which is a good thing. But the target needs to be much higher.

The Postal Service’s performance of eight straight years of productivity growth is commendable. Indeed, given its history, eight straight years of growth is remarkable. The organization had struggled over the years to sustain productivity growth, seeing its TFP numbers jump one year, only to decline the next. From 2000 to 2006, the Postal Service had cumulative growth in TFP of 10.4 percent, an amount that surpassed the cumulative growth for the 30 years spanning 1970 to 1999 (cumulative growth of 9.3 percent).

But the challenge is greater as the Postal Service moves into the era of price-cap control on its prices. With its latitude to raise rates on its market-dominant products capped at inflation and volume increases remaining flat, the Postal Service will need to increase its productivity even more than it has in the past few years. It will have to set private-sector targets.

Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Glen Walker acknowledged that the Postal Service would have to increase its productivity as the organization moves under price-cap regulation. In a conversation with trade reporters after the September board meeting, Walker said TFP would have to move higher than current targets and certainly could not go down in a year. The Postal Service’s continued focus on work hours will be key to achieving productivity growth, he said.

A recent paper by Michael Schuyler from the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (IRET) shows that the Postal Service’s TFP growth has been fairly similar to the private sector’s multi-factor productivity for the past six years. From 2000 to 2006, TFP grew on average 1.5 percent compared to a growth of 1.6 percent in multi-factor productivity for the private sector. But for the period 1975 to 2006, the Postal Service’s average productivity growth has been half of the private sector’s increase. See the full paper at http://iret.org/pub/ADVS-229.PDF.

Productivity is not a new topic in the postal world. It was a hot topic in the mid 1990s, when the Postal Service saw sizable decreases in TFP. But with the solid improvement over the past eight years, it has fallen off the radar screen a bit. Still, some in private industry have been quietly urging the Postal Service to step up its efforts and raise its goals.

The Postal Service faces competition and a price cap. It needs strong productivity to thwart both. I doubt anyone is suggesti

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Air France cargo network live on Unisys-operated CPS

Posted by | Oct 8, 2007 | |

The Air France cargo network is now available through the Unisys-operated Cargo Portal Services (CPS), the electronic booking & shipment management service for the air cargo industry.

Freight forwarders around the world are now able to take advantage of the extensive Air France Cargo – KLM Cargo route network when booking and managing shipments.

“This development builds on KLM Cargo’s success with CPS over the last four years,” said Michael Wisbrun, president of Air France Cargo – KLM Cargo, adding that as a merged company, it was natural to extend CPS coverage for all clients through the combined AF-KLM Cargo network.

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Greater focus needed on creating a sustainable and viable UK post office network

Posted by | Oct 8, 2007 | |

Network needs a clear vision with a mix of products and services to attract and retain users
Post Office must capitalise on its brand strength and build more commercial partnerships
Research shows that mail is a unique selling point and potential growth area for post offices

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, has called on the Government and Post Office Ltd to ensure that the sustainability of a viable post office network is their top priority once the current closure program is completed.

Postcomm does not regulate post offices but it does monitor and research developments in the network and provides independent advice to the Government. This is in the form of an annual report which is published today – entitled “A sustainable customer focused network” – along with supporting research on “Access to postal services”.

Among its recommendations, the regulator has identified that the network will need:

– a clear vision and a combination of commercial products and services that can attract and retain new customers – for example, Post Office Ltd has run trials with Argos, where customers were able to collect online purchases from their local post office, and is working on other propositions;
– more links with commercial partners who recognize and can benefit from Post Office Ltd’s brand strength – for example, its joint venture with Bank of Ireland to sell financial services which is attracting 50,000 new customers every month;
– stronger links with communities to identify ways in which they can work with Post Office Ltd and the Government to help sustain the provision of local postal services.

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Royal Mail Statement

Posted by | Oct 8, 2007 | |

Royal Mail said that it was disappointed and extremely concerned that intensive talks with the Communications Workers Union have not resolved the issues between us and that they have called for further strike action next week.

Royal Mail Chief Executive Adam Crozier said: “Over the last 8 days, and 30 hours of talks over the weekend alone, we have worked with the TUC and their General Secretary, Brendan Barber, and have been totally committed to finding a solution within the amount we can afford.

Royal Mail will be writing to the CWU later this week clearly setting out our position, and we remain available for talks.

Royal Mail also confirmed that during the latest strike action by the CWU the drift back to work among their members continues with more than half the typical daily mailbag being processed as usual.

We would like to thank all of our people who are supporting us during the dispute and doing all they can to keep the postal service moving and deliver the mail to our customers. We apologize to customers for any delay and inconvenience caused by the CWU’s strike action.

Royal Mail is also pleased that we have concluded a deal in principle with Unite/CMA, which represents 12,000 of our managers, over pay, modernization and pension reform. The agreement with Unite, like the pay deals already agreed with our people in Parcelforce and with our national network of sub postmasters, was reached without recourse to any industrial action.

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