NAFCU pushes back on postal banking, offers ways for CUs to help consumers

Ahead of a House Appropriations subcommittee oversight hearing today on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), NAFCU’s Brad Thaler reiterated the association’s concerns with postal banking and argued credit unions are well positioned to achieve the goals of such proposals.

“The USPS was established to provide letter, parcel and package delivery services to the country, and an expanded foray into financial services would be both beyond these powers and add a responsibility in which the postal service has no expertise,” wrote Thaler, NAFCU’s vice president of legislative affairs. “In fact, both the U.S. Treasury and USPS itself have both issued statements discouraging the notion of postal banking being an efficient use of time or resources. ”

Thaler recommended that instead of pursuing postal banking, which could also raise regulatory and consumer protection concerns, Congress allow all credit unions to add underserved communities to their fields of membership.

“This would be one way to help provide additional access to regulated financial services for those in underserved communities, while not creating costly new programs with uncertain effectiveness and impact,” Thaler concluded.

 

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