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Postal Banking's Public Benefits, Mehrsa Baradaran

Scholarly Works

The basic idea of postal banking is to have a public bank that would offer a wide range of transaction services, including deposit-taking and small lending. Post offices could offer these services at a much lower cost than banks and the fringe banking industry because (1) they can use natural economies of scale and scope to lower the costs of the products; (2) their existing infrastructure significantly reduces overhead costs, and (3) they do not have profit-demanding shareholders and would be able to offer products at cost.