Opening a public consultation on new financial products and services that could be offered by the Post Office, he said: "I would like to see the Post Office at the forefront of the provision of good value mortgages across the UK. The Post Office has rapidly grown sales of its award-winning mortgages and is today announcing improved rates across its mortgages range.
"Our consultation outlines exciting proposals, but I want people to have their say. This is an opportunity for local communities to tell us what they want and need from their Post Office. Information about the consultation will be available in all of the network's 11,500 branches."
The consultation outlines a number of financial services that the Post Office could offer, including:
- Post Office Current Account - its own current account accessible from any of the over 11,500 branches across the country.
- Post Office Children's Savings Account - an account designed to encourage children to save through visits to their local Post Office.
- Post Office Business Bank Accounts - currently the Post Office offers access to business accounts from a few High Street banks. It could offer increased access to business accounts from other providers, as well as its own business account.
- A weekly budgeting account - many low income households are unable to take advantage of the savings that can be made by paying for services by direct debit. One way to tackle this problem is by offering a simple account that could ring-fence a proportion of income each week, and then pay out bills by direct debit on a monthly or quarterly basis.
- A closer link between the Post Office and credit unions - it can be difficult to access credit union accounts when people are not in their local area. The local nature of the Post Office makes it ideally placed to allow credit union savers to access their accounts across the country.
- Working to ensure all banks' current accounts can be accessed at a Post Office - currently 60% of current accounts (around 25m accounts) can be accessed at Post Office branches. The Government wants more banks to allow their current accounts to be accessible at the Post Office.
