Post bank would be good news for Powys post offices (Kirsty Williams AM )

Cymraeg
English

Kirsty Williams AM <info@kirstywilliams.org.uk>

Post bank would be good news for Powys post offices

March 23, 2009 12:00 AM

Kirsty and Roger campaigning to save Brecon and Radnorshire Post Offices

Kirsty Williams, AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, has welcomed the publication of The Case for a Post Bank which calls for the establishment of a publicly owned bank based on the Post Office network and the potential benefit it would have on Powys post offices.

The report calls for the Post Office to be strengthened by building up and extending its current financial services so that there is no need for further closures. As well as securing the future of the Post Office network the Post Bank would have a responsibility to assist small businesses and those on low income who currently face financial exclusion. By allowing people and businesses to invest and save with confidence and security the Post Bank would help to underpin the economic recovery.

Kirsty Williams said: "The Liberal Democrats have long supported creating a Post Office based bank, and this influential report is truly welcome. With the current loss of confidence in both banks and bankers, the time has never been better to create a Post Bank. A national bank based on the Post Office's trusted brand and unrivalled reach would be the perfect way for the Government to get lending going again.

"The Post Bank could offer safe, reliable banking services for business and individual customers alike through the large post office network. It would also benefit the network by enabling it to expand its services, helping to put it back on a secure and profitable long term footing.

"This would mean people across Brecon & Radnorshire would not only benefit from safe and affordable credit but also that our much beleaguered post offices would be strengthened and more able to survive into the future. This in turn would help to maintain our remote rural communities which are so often under threat from the loss of services.

"I hope the Government will seize this opportunity to build on the foundations of the Post Office network and create a Post Bank by investing the resources needed to make it work."

Notes:

The report has been published by a broad coalition including the Communications Union, Federation of Small Businesses, New Economics Foundation, Public Interest Research Centre and Unite the Union.

The model for a Post Bank proposed by the coalition would:

provide more financial services to people and businesses currently not served by high street lenders.

strengthen the role of post offices and the Post Office Network making it more viable, creating new job opportunities, and securing its role for the future,

ensure a stable source of finance in the heart of communities, particularly for the three million people still not using banks and the many small businesses looking for alternative sources of finance,

link the productive economy with finance through a return to the form of relationship banking abandoned by our biggest banks

The Post Bank which would be established with Government funding, supported for example by the issue of local bonds, would offer a variety of finance services through post office branches and online would address these key concerns. Instead of using Government money to service existing bad debt, the Post Bank would provide stable finance where it is needed most, in the heart of our local economies.