U.S. Mayors vote for postal banking, financial services; “trillion dollar issue,” says BankACT president.
DALLAS, TEXAS — At its June 20-23, 2014 annual meeting, the US Conference of Mayors (USCM) adopted a pair of resolutions endorsing postal banking, co-signed by eight mayors from six states. Their goal is to bring $1 trillion of job-creating economic stimulus primarily to low-income neighborhoods, over the next decade, at zero cost to taxpayers.
Post office-based financial services will generate sales tax revenues of as much as $3 billion a year, benefiting cities of the more than 200 mayors attending the USCM meeting, according to BankACT, a nonprofit advocacy group.
In one resolution, the USCM calls upon the United States Postal Service (USPS) to offer basic financial services, such as small payday loans and reloadable money cards. Payday lenders and other financial predators target low-income working families and retirees at exorbitant cost, totaling nearly $100 billion a year, noted BankACT president Marc Armstrong. “By offering inexpensive financial services,” he said, “the USPS can help drive out financial predators, restoring billions of dollars to low-income neighborhoods at no cost to taxpayers.”
The other USCM resolution urges the Postal Service to bring back once-popular postal savings accounts and use the deposits to help fund a national infrastructure bank. This specialized bank will reduce the high cost of financing public construction projects — a boon to local governments, Armstrong added, that can generate thousands of jobs.
The USCM resolutions were inspired by a January 2014 report by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) citing payday lender abuses. The OIG report proposed that the Postal Service offer low-cost basic financial services, including small payday loans and savings accounts. It will especially help people who don’t currently use bank accounts.
Lead sponsor of the US Conference of Mayors postal banking resolutions was Virgil Bernero, Mayor of Lansing, Michigan. Co-signers were Mayors Paul Soglin (Madison, Wisconsin), Jean Quan (Oakland, California), Gayle McLaughlin (Richmond, California), Stephen Cassidy (San Leandro, California), Joy Cooper (Hallandale Beach, Florida), Dan Rizzo (Revere, Massachusetts) and Sal Panto (Easton, Pennsylvania).
“BankACT invites all mayors and other elected officials to take a stand with us on this trillion-dollar issue,” Armstrong said. The two postal banking resolutions and a slide briefing are available for download at postalpower.org.
About BankACT
BankACT (bankact.org) is a nonprofit organization advocating financial fairness via “public options” for banking and financial services. BankACT advocates postal banking as proposed by the Office of Inspector General of the US Postal Service. For information, visit bankact.org or write to info@bankact.org.
Donawhore has made no statements on this since the OIG floated this,USPS mismanagement is more interested in killing collective bargaining,dictating the work rules and taking control of employee retirement and health benefits…god help us if Congress passes a bill that allows this,and as all postal employees know,postal banking and administering retirement and health benefits is way over the head of incompetent and corrupt USPS management.
This idea was proposed by the Office of Inspector General, not by Donahue and his bought and sold cronies. A big money maker for USPS is the sale of money orders. The money floats in USPS bank accounts until they’re cashed at the other end. This program in theory would be to reach out to lower income working families. USPS is annually rated the most trusted Federal Agency. Go into many Post offices on a Saturday morning. There are many lower income people purchasing money orders to pay bills or maybe send money to family members not here in the U.S. People would use these services.Many people have a distrust of our financial institutions. They nearly bankrupted our country.It’s a great idea, but getting it past the Republican controlled Congress is a long shot at best.What’s wrong with giving people other alternatives? It’s a win for the Postal Service and a win for lower income Americans. A Tea Party nightmare.
this has as much chance as pink unicorns on the moon; these people are delusional;
With the blatant theft, cheating, corruption and lying done by postal mgmt on a daily basis, why would anyone in their right mind trust them with their banking needs ?
Translation: These Mayors have agreed to the terms of the kickbacks and bribes, offered by USPS mgmt, for their endorsement of this plan.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Management wants to do anything to make our NUMBERS look good, even if it means falsifying information. Need the numbers to look good for that bonus! Just like the VA hiding wait time list, the postal service is falsifying information to get their bonuses too.
Does the postal service really care about increasing services that will also increase revenue. I think not. The postal service is only interested in cutting everything. Management in my area carries this attitude, lets provide as little service as we can, close the doors earlier and earlier and send all the employees home ASAP!