An Post initiative to provide for banking services at post offices
An Post revealed the deal had moved a step closer after it signed the first stage of an agreement with Belgian/Dutch-based international financial services company, Fortis.
The firms have agreed a memo of understanding with management hopeful it would be completed over the next four months. “Both parties expect to sign the final agreement by this summer,” An Post said in a statement.
The move will lead to the creation of a joint venture between Fortis and AnPost with a view to providing financial services in Ireland in post offices around the country. Assuming a successful conclusion, An Post and Fortis expect to bring products to the market early next year.
The An Post expansion was approved by the Cabinet meeting in February as part of the strategic recovery plan for the company announced in 2003. The move is regarded as a significant step forward for the firm opening new profit making avenues across its unrivalled network of urban and rural post offices.
Fortis, which has experience in postal banking, is an international financial services provider engaged in banking and insurance, which ranks among the 20 largest financial institutions in Europe with a presence in 44 countries and a workforce of 56,000.
However, the An Post announcement came amid growing concern for the future of local sub-post offices. Almost 300 local post offices have closed in the past three years.
The general secretary of the Irish Postmasters’ Union, John O’Kane, warned yesterday that many hundreds of the remaining 1,375 sub-post offices are facing imminent closure in the next year or two if remedial action was not taken by Government to safeguard the network.
He claimed Government policy was undermining the viability of the sub-post office network which “everyone seems to want, but nobody wants to pay for”.
