FINANCIAL SERVICES
THE FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKET
Post provides a range of financial services – including banking, bill payment and money transfer services – on behalf of financial institutions and large bill issuers. Post also leverages off its strong brand reputation as a trusted third-party supplier to provide face-to-face identity verification for passports, citizenship applications, opening of bank accounts and driver’s licence renewals. In an increasingly competitive market, Post’s revenue from financial services grew by 3.3 per cent during the year.
BILL PAYMENT
Australia Post’s bill-payment service, Postbillpay, processed 170 million bill-payment transactions in 2003–04 (compared with 171 million last year). The number of bill-payment partners increased with 564 billers now using the service (511 previously). The gross value of the bill-payment collections handled by Postbillpay during the year was $75.5 billion ($73.1 billion last year).
An important development occurred in December 2003 with the launch of a customised Internet bill-payment service for the Australian Gas Light Company (AGL). This was the first time that Post had used its Internet bill-payment expertise to deliver a service using the biller’s branding. The service is accessed via AGL’s website but operates on the Postbillpay infrastructure.
Of Post’s 564 bill-payment partners that send bills by mail, all offer the over-the-counter payment option; 336 offer payment by telephone (305 last year); and 335 offer the Internet payment option (285 last year). The number of telephone-based Postbillpay transactions increased by 21 per cent and the number of Postbillpay transactions conducted via the Internet increased by 42 per cent. Post also introduced its household bill management service, Billmanager, in South Australia and Victoria.
BANKING SERVICES
Post’s agency banking service, giroPost, enables customers to make deposits, withdrawals, credit card payments, account balance inquiries and/or new account applications for 77 participating financial institutions. This service is particularly important in rural and regional areas where Post is often the sole provider of banking services. In a market that is increasingly subject to electronic substitution, the total number of giroPost transactions declined marginally to 33.2 million (33.7 million last year).
Post expanded customer access to its business banking service by adding two more banks and one credit union to the service. This means seven financial institutions now offer business banking services via Post. The number of Post outlets offering business banking services increased by 24 per cent to 612 outlets (494 last year). Of these, 382 are in rural and regional areas. Transaction volumes for business banking increased by 6.3 per cent.
MONEY TRANSFER SERVICES
In the first full year of offering the Western Union Money Transfer® service, there was significant growth in transaction volumes and revenue, with monthly volumes increasing by over 300 per cent (comparing June 2003 with June 2004). During the year, Post helped to expand the overall Australian market for the service. Strong growth in the Western Union service more than compensated for a small decline in the amount of traditional money order transactions.
TRAVELLERS CHEQUES
Enhanced promotion and product options contributed to a 72 per cent increase in the volume of American Express® Travellers Cheque transactions. Electronic exchange rate boards were installed in 51 Post outlets during the year to improve the visibility of the service. In June 2004, Post trialled a zero-commission service that will test how commissions affect the popularity of the service.
AUTHENTICATION SERVICES
Post has extended its authentication services beyond passport and citizenship interviews to the acceptance of applications and issuing renewals for a range of licences (including driving, boating and firearms) in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, as well as the 100-point check for new bank accounts. All states now offer an instant passport photo service, which is a precursor to the emerging market for digital image capture. The corporation’s high-integrity identity authentication service, KeyPost, is now being used beyond the original purpose of checking applicants for digital certificates.
TRANSACTION SERVICES
Post’s Shared Services Division (SSD) provides 20 different financial, accounting, human resources and business application support services to Post as well as a range of services to external companies. In 2003–04, SSD paid 260,000 invoices for the corporation, settled 170 million Postbillpay transactions, supported transactions for 4,477 Post outlets and processed fortnightly pay for approximately 35,000 Post staff.
Internally, SSD introduced speech recognition technology to handle the 150,000 telephone calls that are made annually to the corporation’s Employee Assist and Accounting Contact Centres. SSD also introduced a new payroll system for Post Logistics staff. Externally, SSD partnered with Post Logistics to provide customer care services as part of integrated fulfilment contracts for customers such as Dell and Microsoft.
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