Tag: Financials

India Post plans global tie-ups to take on MNCs

Posted by | Feb 29, 2008 | |

India Post is all set to enter into a series of global partnerships to compete with international money services companies such as Western Union and global courier companies like FedEx. The postal department is in talks with its counterparts in the US, Switzerland, France, and Oman, among others, as it plans to tap the expertise of these countries in specialised financial services and replicate such offerings in India.

The logic: With nearly 82,000 post offices being computerised, the strong IT base will enable India Post to offer several value-added services in addition to full-fledged banking services. Partnerships with global majors will enable India Post to launch these value-added and modern ICT-based services.

Besides, with millions of expatriate workers of Indian origin in several countries sending huge remittances back home, the postal department is also going all out to tap this segment. More so, considering that India Post has the largest possible network of 70,000 branches in rural India alone.

For instance, India Post has already tied up with the postal service department of the UAE for speedy transfer of money orders between the two countries. While this facility is currently available only to a few sourthern states, it will soon be extended to all states in a phased manner.

The process to get into global partnerships was set rolling last year. In November 2007, India Post signed an MoU with Deutsche Post where both organisations agreed to create a multi-layer relationship. The MoU envisaged partnerships in the field of conveyance and distribution of mails, logistic and warehousing operations and financial services.

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The Italian perspective

Posted by | Feb 29, 2008 | |

As Royal Mail closes post offices, its counterpart in Italy is expanding and moving into profit by adopting a strategy that Royal Mail bosses might wish to consider.

The Italian postal turnaround offers an example of go-ahead enterprise in a country that, on the whole, is mired in gloomy predictions of decline, low growth, stagnation and instability. How has this unlikely miracle been achieved? Massimo Sarmi, the chief executive of Poste Italiane, is reluctant to boast, let alone to offer advice to Royal Mail – but at his office near the Trevi Fountain he offers a vision of the post office as a “one-stop shop” that not only delivers mail but is also a bank offering financial services, such as loans, bill payments, money transfers, online retail mail order, insurance, secure e-mail, pre-paid internet cards, even mobile phones.

“In the past five years there has been a revolution,” he said. “Take something like medical care. You can use the post office online network to make an appointment with your doctor, who then notifies the local pharmacist of the medical supplies you need, which are then dispatched automatically to you in the mail. All you have to do physically is turn up at the surgery to be examined.”

The key, in other words, is diversification in the internet age, using the post office’s existing – and on the whole, trusted – nationwide infrastructure. The post office has a network that other agencies cannot match, reaching into far-flung areas of the Italian peninsula. Mr Sarmi has even flown to Kosovo to open a branch post office for the multinational forces there.

Poste Italiane, which has 14,000 offices and 150,000 employees, loses hundreds of millions of euros a year on its mail services. Increasingly, however, mail is a public service subsidised by more profitable ventures. The same goes for rural post offices. Far from being cut, a hundred have been added over the past five years.

Mail accounts for less than a third of revenues. The rest, Mr Sarmi said, comes from services that did not exist when he took over six years ago, let alone a decade ago. The Italian post office now has a corporate logo in yellow and blue and a fast website in Italian and English.

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China’s currency sprints into the fast lane in UK Post Office bureaux de change to meet rocketing demand

Posted by | Feb 26, 2008 | |

Rocketing demand for the Chinese yuan suggests that China may be making the leap from a niche to a mainstream holiday destination, according to Post Office Travel Services.

In response, the UK’s largest provider of foreign currency is gearing up for the Olympic Games by making the yuan available on demand at its major bureaux de change branches.

Over the past three years Post Office bureaux de change across the UK have tracked a growth in sales for Chinese yuan of more than 337 per cent. This trend tallies with the experience of tour operators, who report a quadrupling of China bookings in the same period.

With the Beijing Olympic Games now less than six months away and interest in holidays to China reaching a peak, the Post Office expects demand to mushroom during 2008. It has responded by adding Chinese yuan to its top tier of currencies, available on demand in 1,400 Post Office® bureaux de change branches nationwide.

China also looks to be one of 2008’s better value destinations for UK holidaymakers. According to the Post Office, sterling’s drop in value of less than eight per cent against the Chinese yuan compares favourably with falls of over 13 per cent against the euro and other major currencies.

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Restructuring of Russia’s postal system will take up to five years

Posted by | Feb 13, 2008 | |

Post in Russia has had a difficult time in recent years, both for users of the antiquated service and for the government underpinning its financial position. It lost USD 186 million in 2007. But this is set to change with the appointment of a new head and a renewed focus on service and infrastructure.

One of the oldest and largest government owned enterprises – Russia Post – is entering a reconstruction phase. Currently it includes almost 90 affiliates with 42,000 outlets, but even these figures don’t help it to make profit.

The latest move to do something about the post was to place former Sberbank CEO Andrey Kazmin in charge. He says the first thing to change will be the financial losses.

“Russia Post will not become a bank in the future. It will have a range of services, but the main service will be delivering post. Financial services will be a part of these. And we do plan to increase the profitability of Russia Post by enlarging the number of financial services and updating the sector,” Kazmin said.

It will be focusing on services such as money transfers and loan payments, and will offer some banking services in regional Russia.

“Currently, Russia Post has a lot of problems. And it will take from three to five years to finish the reconstruction process. However, by the end, with the financial services in place, it can compete with Sberbank in places where there are no banks at all,” said Anatoly Aksakov, the head of Association of Regional Banks.

The restructuring of Russia’s postal system will take up to five years, according to experts.

It’s expected that more concrete proposals for Russia Posts transformation will be unveiled in March.

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SingPost now offering Visa Money Transfer

Posted by | Feb 6, 2008 | |

Visa and Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) are now offering a new Visa Money Transfer remittance service from 51 designated post offices in Singapore enabling the transfer of money to nine markets around the world. The SingPost Visa Money Transfer service enables money to be sent to Visa cardholders in nine countries in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United Kingdom. It is the first time Visa Money Transfer has been made available through a postal service provider.

Visa International country manager for Singapore and Brunei, Ms Meranda Chan, said, “We are delighted to partner with SingPost. Customers have traditionally gone to SingPost to send letters, cards or packages – now they can send money with the same ease and security via Visa Money Transfer. With SingPost Visa Money Transfer we are making it easier for people to send funds conveniently to their families and friends in other countries.”

“Instead of having to travel to a bank branch or agent location, recipients can use the funds they receive on their Visa card at any of the 29 million Visa merchant outlets worldwide,” Ms Chan said.

Its ease of use is one of the key attractions of the SingPost Visa Money Transfer service. All the customers need to do is to register for a CASHOME card at any of the 51 SingPost post offices offering Visa Money Transfer. A CASHOME card is an identification card for customers to use to remit funds, removing the hassle of filling out forms each time they wish to transfer funds. Whenever customers wish to remit money, they simply provide the recipient’s 16-digit Visa card number to whom they wish to send the funds.

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