In many countries, post offices play an active role in the provision of basic financial services to all segments of the population, including rural communities, senior citizens, women and the poor. Post offices help to pool small savings and to efficiently process bulk small-value payments. This paper reviews the origin and history of the postal financial services, provides an international overview of trends and developments, and highlights existing practices in reforming and modernizing the postal financial services. The paper puts forward ideas and institutional models that can be taken into consideration for the reform of the postal financial services.
