This paper discusses the Romania case study of the role of the postal network in expanding access to financial services. The paper provides a review of the public postal operator within the postal sector and the broader context of the Communications sector. Subsequently, the roles of the postal network and the Romanian BancPost are reviewed in the perspective of the financial sector development, with particular focus on payments systems development and microfinance. The study found much recent data available on the payments system, and an overview of the postal operator in reports prepared for the EU and several other sources, including annual reports of the BancPost and ING reports from previous missions. The paper comprehensively presents the issues that Romania faces in addressing the remaining gaps in communications and financial infrastructure and the role that the postal network could fulfill helping to bridge those gaps.
