UPU News : Forum shines light on postal financial inclusion potential
28.10.2013 - Closing the UPU’s two-day global forum on financial inclusion on Friday 25 October, UPU Deputy Director General Pascal Clivaz urged stakeholders to continue working with Posts to help them provide millions of unbanked people easier access to financial services.
“Let us
continue the dialogue and undertake concrete and far-reaching actions to
drastically reduce money transfer costs by linking service to access
for those populations excluded from the banking system,” said Clivaz at
the end of the two-day forum in Geneva attended by some 200 participants
from more than 70 countries.
He also had a
message for governments: “More than ever the Post is an instrument of
public service and a formidable tool for social and economic
integration. Invest in your postal network and position postal services
at the heart of your development and economic growth strategies.”
What central banks can do
One of the
forum’s sessions invited representatives from central banks, especially
in developing countries, to talk about the challenges Posts face in
banking more people.
Speakers
recognized that Posts’ far-reaching networks, client base, and
trustworthiness make them engines for financial inclusion. They agreed
to help with regulations, but urged Posts to innovate.
Burundi’s
Innocent Ndabarushimana assured the central bank is working to update
the country’s laws to take better advantage of the Post’s rural network.
“You don’t want a regulator that is so strict it limits innovation,” he
explained.
Central banks’
expectations of Posts will depend on countries’ existing levels of
financial inclusion, explained the session’s moderator, UPU economist
José Ansón, but he is optimistic central banks will cooperate as much as
possible to meet their needs.
“There is
institutional willingness to accommodate the postal network into the
financial system,” he said. “The central banks realize their frameworks
must be flexible enough to allow innovation, but rigorous enough to
avoid economic risk.”
Clivaz urged
central banks to create the conditions for postal services to be key
players in financial inclusion. He recalled World Bank data showing that
Posts offer the lowest prices for money transfer services and are
already contributing to reducing overall prices generally.
The global
forum on financial inclusion for development was organized by the UPU,
the Swiss government and the International Organization of la
Francophonie.
Source : http://news.upu.int/
No comments:
Post a Comment