Saving Gateway Accounts Bill
4:37 pm
Alan Cook: The Post Office has been very clear that we would be keen to participate in this initiative. As I said in my introductory remarks, this goes to the heart of the Post Office’s role in terms of financial inclusion. We have the best part of 4 million customers still collecting benefits in cash from post offices. We think that 1.5 million of those are probably eligible for a saving gateway product in their own right. We are actually paying the benefit in cash over the counter.
I would not, though, want to trivialise the cost issue. I might lie somewhere between ABCUL and the banks. I would need to find a partner to provide the administrative capability and would pay that partner to do the work. That partner might well belong to one of the other associations at this table. The economics are there and need to be tackled. The Post Office believes that it would be a good thing to do, and that we need to find a way to make it work. We would expect, probably, to take a significant market share of the accounts, which would of course make it easier.