MSE News: Post Office could become a bank

Would this new bank be fully covered by the FSA though? As far as I'm aware, most of the financial services provided by the Post Office are through the Bank of Ireland who have their own compensation scheme. I don't think I could put my trust in a non-fully UK-based institution again. Not after the uncertainty with Icesave compensation.

craigers wrote: »

Would there not be a possible monopoly issue with the size of the PO network?

I would think the PO pales into insignificance next to the likes of Barclays, Lloyds-HBOS and RBS

marcharrison1979 wrote: »

I hope this is the start of a new fairer banking system, let's see the post office kick some banking !!!!! i hope the other banks are bricking themselves. Ha ha!

No, the banks are not going to be bricking themselves. The Post Office is currently plagued with problems that would both prevent this from being an attractive proposition to many customers AND make it hard to roll this out nationally.

ses6jwg wrote: »

I would think the PO pales into insignificance next to the likes of Barclays, Lloyds-HBOS and RBS

Officially the Post Office has 12,000 branches, but that means little - few of those are run by the Post Office directly, and few of them have the facilities to operate in the same way that a high street bank does without massive reinvestment - and that's before you consider necessary premises changes, etc.

Let there be no mistake - if this happens it will be the Post Office handing you forms to fill in and send away. It's not going to be the same as having a new high street retail bank pop up.

I dont like going in there as it is, everything is about sales now and as a bank they would be pushing you more

"Would you like a credit card?"
"No i just wish to post this package"
"How about travel insurance?"
"No!..."

I usually get out of their sales by telling them which credit cards are better than theirs hehe