Postbank to be restructured

Cape Town - One of the main focuses of South Africa's Post Office under the Ministry of Communications in the upcoming 2003-2004 financial year will be the restructuring of its Postbank operations to meet the needs of millions of un-banked people in the country, according to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

In a paper outlining the Ministry of Communications' priorities at a media briefing session at parliament on Thursday, the minister said Postbank, which provides banking (mainly savings) products and services to the lower end of the market, would be restructured so that it could become a "focused savings bank targeting the poor and rural areas".

orporatisation of the bank was also under consideration.

Postbank also planned to launch more financial services products targeting lower-income earners, thus expanding its revenue base and helping the Post Office overall to become less dependent on declining volumes of mail for its income. - I-Net Bridge