The U.S. Postal Service rolled out a paycheck-cashing service at a few post offices on the East Coast in September, according to a Monday (Oct. 4) report from The Washington Post.
Customers of post offices in Washington, Baltimore, Falls Church, Va., and the Bronx can cash paychecks in exchange for Visa gift cards up to $500, according to the article. The pilot effort is expected to broaden into a more comprehensive study with additional locations and financial products, including bill-paying services and ATMs, according to the article.
The USPS’s foray into financial services offerings has been sought for some time. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voiced support for a public banking program through the USPS in 2014, according to PYMNTS. At the time, Warren called on the Postal Service to offer basic banking services, such as bill paying, check cashing and small dollar loans to “provide affordable financial services for underserved families and, at the same time, shore up its own financial footing.”
Read more: Elizabeth Warren Pushes Post Office Banking
The Postal Service has been eyed for some time as the answer to the millions of Americans who are either unbanked or underbanked (meaning they have some basic banking services but are not using the full suite of financial services available to the average consumer), according to PYMNTS. An estimated 27 percent of American adults fall into one of these two categories, PYMNTS reports.
The premise of adding banking services to the Postal Service has long been supported by Democrats, as well as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his presidential bid.
Banking at the post office may be a new offering in the U.S., but that is not the case in other countries. Only 7 percent of postal systems globally have no banking functions incorporated into them, according to PYMNTS. In addition, postal banking is common in a variety of European countries. Some figures, according to PYMNTS, put global postal banking figures at about 1 billion people who have used them for banking services.
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