Main themes

Company sectors

Pofib’s expertise focuses on financial sector institutions and service providers which (intend to) deliver mass retail financial services to the broader public all over the country in co-operation with postal companies in a branchless banking concept.

This expertise covers mainly the following businesses:

1. postal sector companies in developing countries;
2. financial sector institutions like retail (postal) savings banks and other retail financial services providers;
3. money transfer operators in the field of domestic and international transfers and remittances;
4. ‘new’ service providers like mobile operators in the field of domestic transfers;
5. micro-finance institutions (MFI’s), in the broader sense, delivering saving-, payment- and credit services to individuals and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME’s).

Main reasons for involving post office networks are:

• Improve the sustainability of the post office network

• Through diversification of services rendered through the post offices, like improving existing and introducing new (modern) financial services over the country, the revenues can be enlarged and quality and efficiency improved. The continuity of the postal company has to be secured by these diversification initiatives;

• Postal companies, certainly in smaller developing countries, are often state departments or state owned companies which often are being subsidised by the government. For budgetary reasons governments intensify the policy that these subsidies have to be diminished or terminated.

• Social economical reasons for the whole society

• improve physical accessibility to financial services for all people, also in the regions;

• connect ‘the broader public’ to the local and international modern financial sector and improve the conditions for economic growth;

• create conditions  to deliver modern financial services at an affordable price for all levels in society, including the poor. 

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