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JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, had considered opening A.T.M.s and other banking facilities inside branches of the United States Postal Service, a bank spokeswoman said.
Several months ago, the bank explored the possibility of leasing space in post office branches, a move that would have put it in a highly favorable position compared to its giant peers, the spokeswoman said.
Following a report on Wednesday by The Capitol Forum that cited an internal Postal Service document describing the plans, the JPMorgan spokeswoman, Patricia Wexler, said the bank had discussions “about what it might look like to lease a small number of spaces to place A.T.M.s to better serve some historically underserved communities.”
Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Postal Service to offer its own banking options so that more low-income Americans can have access to basic services, like cashing checks, without having to pay the same rates that banks or payday lenders charge to people without bank accounts, which can be extremely high.
Having JPMorgan’s banking facilities in post office branches may have made the idea of postal banking harder to execute. That would have been good for JPMorgan and other large banks, which generally oppose postal banking because it would undermine their ability to attract new customers.
In June, a consortium of bank lobbying groups, including the American Bankers Association, the largest such group in the country, as well as the Bank Policy Institute, which represents the country’s largest banks, wrote to leaders in the House of Representatives urging them to oppose legislation that would have provided funding for postal banking services for the 2021 fiscal year.
“Congress should encourage the Postal Service to focus on its core business of physical mail delivery, and not attempt to expand the mission to businesses outside of the Postal Service’s area of expertise,” the groups’ representatives wrote.
Ms. Wexler said JPMorgan’s talks with the Postal Service were preliminary. “There is no agreement in place and no imminent plans to move forward,” she said.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/08/19/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus