Campaign for a Post Bank

"The Post Bank is an attempt to clean up banking. This is a cleaner principle based on sound banking ideas, but driven by public interest rather than narrow short-term profits.” - Vince Cable MP

The Campaign for a Post Bank calls for a new public-interest bank to be set up, based on the Post Office Network. The Post Office is a vital national resource which is depended upon by countless communities, individuals and small businesses. And yet it is under pressure from Government to modernise and adapt. nef believes that by expanding financial services at the Post Office, the network would be strengthened and given new purpose, while also providing much needed financial services to the millions of people who are currently without bank accounts.

Even before the financial crisis of 2008, it was clear to many that the UK's banking system has been serving the needs of distant shareholders, not small businesses, local economies or people on low incomes. There are now just 170 bank branches per million people in the United Kingdom as opposed to Germany’s 520 and France’s 960 branches per million. Across the country, bank branches have closed, right where they are most needed and valued. The Post Office, with its 12,000 branches, could step into the breach.

nef is a founding member of the Post Bank Coalition: a group which also includes the Communications Workers' Union, the National Convention of Pensioners, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Public Interest Research Centre and Unite the Union.