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Postal banking. The workers want it and even presented a proposal to the corporate leadership, who said no.
That said, delivering mail isn't supposed to be profitable. It's supposed to provide people with their mail.
It would cut into the capital available to commercial banks, so of course it won't happen. RBC, TD, CIBC, BMO and Scotia do not want to lose those sweet customer deposits.
Same reason we don't get public rail and public telecomms: essential services can only be delivered if they make a rich person richer.
It also isn't going to work in Quebec since we already have Desjardins, and like what 70%+ of people here bank with them?
I remember when my wife worked there this came up. It's like adding typewriter repair and buggy whip sales as a business division. No relevant consumer is asking for this when you can do it all on your phone, even deposit cheques, if you don't already do it on a desktop.
You'll get a bunch of high-maintenance old people that still want to pay their bills in person and can't, and it'll lose money hand over fist.
You'll get a bunch of high-maintenance old people that still want to pay their bills in person and can't, and it'll lose money hand over fist.
I really don't think that that's an inevitability. Functionally, they would become very similar to a credit union and this would actually give Canada Post more flexibility as an organization to expand their parcel services as well as reconsider their utility to the average Canadian by offering financial services.
Canada Post is already very entwined with the Royal Canadian Mint through collectible coins and also sells money orders. Adding postal banking could be the start of a small portfolio of auxiliary services that Canadians find valuable in addition to their usual mail and parcel delivery. This would especially be a boon in rural or low-income areas where dedicated banking services are far away or unaffordable.
There's a reason dedicated banking services are unaffordable in rural areas; it's because they're unprofitable. Chasing unprofitable models is notoriously unprofitable.
An organization that isn't a dedicated banking service might not adhere to that model since it's not a dedicated banking service. Obviously that's the point I was making, that Canada Post has the chance to branch out and is uniquely flexible in the space, so they would have the ability to integrate some auxiliary services into their business model without much disruption at the post office level.
This approach also doesn't have additional personnel overhead since Canada Post already have staff and established locations. Cross-training postal employees is a lot easier and cheaper than having to establish and maintain a bank branch, especially one that offers mortgage/insurance brokerage or investment products. Canada Post wouldn't necessarily need to offer that, especially not right away.