America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle urged the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to end its experiment in postal banking and “return its focus to the core mission of making sure Americans get their mail in a timely manner” ahead of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ hearing on oversight of the USPS.
In a letter to the committee, Nussle expressed credit union concerns around USPS’s expansion of financial services and postal banking. He noted that expanding into financial services “would both go beyond the USPS’s purpose and powers and add responsibilities in which the USPS has no expertise and does not currently have the infrastructure and capacity to manage.”
He added that interest in postal banking is limited, and the recent pilot program serviced just six customers.
“Postal banking is not one of the solutions to the current issues facing the USPS, nor is it a viable solution for providing financial services to historically underserved communities,” Nussle wrote. “If Congress would like to expand access to financial services, we urge you to consider other steps, such as legislation to allow all credit unions to add underserved communities to their fields of membership.”