“Ethical Markets continues to support this sensible return to community-based Post Office Savings Banking, as in most other advanced societies!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
We can save the USPS and provide less expensive non-profit banking services in the communities that need them most if we bring back Postal Banking nationwide.
Right now, millions of Americans live in what are called ‘banking deserts’ — regions without immediate access to an actual brick and mortar bank. Of course, the majority of those most affected live in communities of color, with approximately 49% of African American households and 46% of Latino households currently without the banking options they need.
In total, an incredible one in four households in the U.S. are unbanked or underbanked, forcing working families across the country to rely on expensive services like check cashers. And big banks are taking advantage of people working for low wages and struggling to pay their bills by charging high overdraft fees that punish people for being poor.
That’s why this is so important.
With Postal Banking, families struggling to make ends meet would gain access to traditional basic banking services at their local post office. Instead of being forced to use check cashers and other high cost services, working people could save nearly $3,000 a year in fees to access their own money.
The idea of offering a safe alternative to predatory financial services like expensive prepaid debit cards, check cashing fees, and overdraft penalties by providing these services at local post offices isn’t new.
We did it before. Congress established a postal banking system that allowed savings accounts earning 2% interest –backed up with the guarantee of the full faith and credit of the United States in 1911.
For more than 50 years, the program worked so well it had built up $2.1 billion in assets accounting for 10% of the entire commercial banking system.[1] In fact, it worked so well, that’s why Wall Street banks got Congress to kill it.
And of course, bringing back postal banking would strengthen the bottom line. Offering low-fee ATMs, check cashing, bill payment, and ways to safely send money overseas, would generate more than $1 billion in revenue each year, according to a report from the USPS Inspector General.
So we can help working families save money, reducing systemic racial and economic inequity AND save the USPS all at the same time. That’s a win/win/win!