On 9-10 November 2009, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) organized a two-day conference on financial inclusion and postal banking, supported by an AFI grant. The workshop, which was held in Bern, Switzerland, looked at how postal services could expand financial access to people living in remote areas of developing countries.

With more than 650,000 post offices worldwide, many postal services, including those of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are already filling an important void in this area.

At the forum, experts from around the world shared their experiences and discussed how postal services could become agents for expanding financial access to the poor.