Post Office: Financial Services

Lord Faulkner of Worcester asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they plan to increase the financial services role of Post Office Ltd.

The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Mandelson):

My Lords, the Post Office has increased the range of financial services and products available through the post office network with considerable success in recent years. The Government welcome these initiatives and will be exploring with the company the scope for developing and introducing further financial services which will be attractive to Post Office customers.

Lord Faulkner of Worcester:

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer, and I look forward to the Statement which we are to receive later. Is he aware that there is very considerable support on these Benches and, I suspect, elsewhere for the views reportedly expressed by my noble friend in a letter to the Prime Minister on 30 October which was reported in the Guardian on Tuesday? It stated:

“we should examine the prospects for Post Office Ltd becoming a much more significant player in financial services - offering a wider range of attractive products within easy reach of the whole population, available from an institution they can trust”.

Is this not now exactly the right time when we should be looking at plans for a people’s bank based on the Post Office, the transfer of much more of the Government’s own business to it and an end to any further branch closures?

Lord Mandelson: My Lords, I obviously cannot comment on private correspondence between myself and the Prime Minister, tempting as it may be, but I share very strongly my noble friend’s sentiments about the future of the Post Office. I do not have a master plan or a magic wand to transform the Post Office, but I do have strong faith in its future, not just as an anchor for local communities but as a serious business proposition.

© Lords Hansard 13 November 2008