Canada Post Could Have Been a Bank. Instead, It’s Broke.

We deserve a Canada Post that delivers more — not just packages, but progress.

Canada Post stands at a crossroads. Once the beating heart of community connection and communication, it now faces unprecedented financial challenges. Declining mail volumes and rising competition in parcel delivery have squeezed revenues, raising urgent questions about its viability.

More than a decade ago, in 2013, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and other progressive organizations proposed a bold idea: diversify Canada Post’s revenue streams by offering financial services. Postal banking, they argued, could be a lifeline—both financially and socially.

Postal banking means using post office branches to provide everyday financial services: checking and savings accounts, bill payments, small loans, and money transfers (which Canada Post has been doing for many years via its partnership with MoneyGram).

Through its Delivering Community Power campaign, CUPW has long maintained that postal banking wouldn’t just improve the crown corporation’s bottom line—it could also be mandated to serve the public good.

A Need Hiding in Plain Sight

Canada has a financial inclusion problem. Around two percent—or roughly 600,000 adults—do not have a bank account. These unbanked individuals tend to come from lower-income or otherwise financially vulnerable groups. Many more are underbanked, meaning they may have an account but still face barriers like high fees, poor credit access, or lack of nearby branches.

These groups often turn to payday lenders and fringe financial services, which charge exorbitant interest rates that can spiral into long-term debt traps.

Low-income, rural, and Indigenous communities are especially underserved by Canada's major banks. Post offices, by contrast, are widespread and trusted. Repurposing them into financial access points could dramatically improve equity in the banking system.

Instead of embracing this opportunity, Canada Post’s leadership chose a narrower path. In response to the decline in letter mail revenue, it cut core services—most infamously, by announcing an end to door-to-door delivery in 2013.

That same year, the crown corporation endorsed a Conference Board of Canada report that dismissed postal banking as unnecessary because “Canada has a highly developed financial services sector.”

This rationale rings hollow, however, when viewed in an international context.

Other Countries Made It Work

Postal banking is not some wild socialist experiment—it’s a mainstream practice in numerous developed nations:

• Switzerland, synonymous with elite private banking, operates PostFinance, a state-owned bank that earned the equivalent of nearly $340 million CAD in operating profit in 2024. Its parent, Swiss Post, reported nearly $543 million CAD in profit.
  

• In New Zealand, the national postal service once earned 70 percent of its profits through its postal bank, KiwiBank, which is now an independent state-owned financial institution.
  

• Italy’s Poste Italiane offers not only banking but insurance services. In 2024, it reported €12.6 billion in revenue and €2 billion in net profit—more than $3 billion CAD.

By contrast, Canada Post lost $748 million in 2023 and says it will require $1 billion in annual public subsidies starting in 2026 to survive.

A Forgotten Legacy

Ironically, Canada used to have a postal bank.

Created in 1868—just one year after Confederation—the Post Office Savings Bank served Canadians for a century. By 1908, its deposits reached the equivalent of $1.3 billion today. But as commercial banks grew more competitive in the postwar decades, the postal bank was allowed to stagnate. It was shuttered in 1969 under the Pierre Trudeau government, forcing 256,000 accounts to close.

So, when Canada Post dismissed postal banking in 2013, it wasn’t rejecting a novel idea—it was burying its own past.

The Secret Studies Canada Post Buried

The mystery of Canada Post’s refusal deepens when you consider what it kept hidden.

In 2014, Blacklock’s Reporter revealed—through an Access to Information request—that Canada Post had in fact quietly studied postal banking. Of the 811 pages disclosed, 701 were redacted, but what remained was telling.

Managers had conducted years of internal polling, focus groups, and feasibility studies. One report, titled Banking: A Proven Strategy, concluded that postal banking “would be a win-win strategy,” and that Canada Post could “profitably launch the largest banking network in the country.”

Yet publicly, Canada Post acted as if postal banking was outlandish—a posture backed by the Harper Conservatives, who oversaw the 2014 delivery cuts and were eyeing privatizing the crown corporation.

The Liberal Flip-Flop

Hope for postal banking briefly returned to the spotlight during the 2015 election, when Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised to reverse the Harper-era cuts. After winning, moreover, the Liberals initiated a review of Canada Post through the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

The committee was chaired by Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski, known for partisan filibusters and past controversies involving homophobic and misogynistic remarks. Unsurprisingly, the committee found—without sharing substantiating evidence with the public—that Canada Post’s decision to “focus on its core competencies” rather than expand into banking “was a reasonable decision.”

Postal banking seemed dead yet again.

An Unforced Crisis

Canada Post’s refusal to innovate set it up for failure.

The fallout included the 2018 strike, back-to-work legislation, and a deepening labour crisis. Throughout it all, the corporation remained stuck in a reactive posture, warring with its workers rather than investing in public value.

But recently, faced with unsustainable losses, it has begun to change course. Just not very well.

In 2022, Canada Post quietly launched a loan program with TD Bank. The rates were higher than traditional lines of credit, drawing public criticism. The program was suspended within weeks.

Then in November 2024, it partnered with fintech startup Koho to offer a digital spending and savings account. The service, dubbed MyMoney, officially launched in March 2025.

But MyMoney quickly came under criticism as well. “This was pitched as no-frills banking,” said Geoff White of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. “But there are frills, and the frills come with the monthly fees.”

Indeed, some account fees are as high as $22 per month, making it an unappealing option for the low-income Canadians it could have served. To make matters worse, MyMoney accounts are not automatically covered by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), unlike traditional bank accounts. Even determining what services are included and what fees apply can be confusing.

After wasting the 2010s—a period during which it still managed to turn modest profits—Canada Post has stumbled into banking services. But its efforts so far have felt more like a panicked pivot than a visionary plan.

The Path Forward

Canada Post is more than a logistics company—it's a public institution with deep roots and national reach. That reach could be used for something more than just delivering letters and parcels. It could bring basic financial services to millions who are excluded by or unsatisfied with Canada's predominantly private banking system.

Postal banking is not just about generating revenue. It’s a tool for economic justice, financial inclusion, and community resilience. 

We deserve a Canada Post that delivers more—not just packages, but progress. 

It’s time for Canada Post to become Canada’s next bank.