经济学人378:邮政银行 邮件在哪儿钱就在哪儿

　　Post-office banking¹
邮政银行
Put your money where your mail is
邮件在哪儿，钱就在哪儿
America's postal² service ponders a foray into financial services
美邮政业或将涉足金融业
WITH a workforce³ of just over 491,000 in 2013, the United States Postal Service is second only to Walmart among civilian⁴ employers in America. But it still employed more than 200,000 fewer people last year than it did just nine years earlier—when it handled nearly 500m more pieces of mail and had almost 2,000 more retail⁵ offices. The rise of e-mail has left America's massive postal service with far less to do, and it has been scrambling⁶ to find ways to raise revenue.
2013年，美国邮政服务公司雇员超过491000人，成为仅次于沃尔玛的美国第二大雇主。九年前美邮需要处理近5亿封邮件，拥有2000多个办事处，和那时相比去年还是减少了超过20万雇员。电子邮件的崛起导致美国大量的邮政服务没什么业务可做，他们开始寻求其他的收入增长点。
邮政银行.jpg
Earlier this year its inspector-general released a white paper suggesting that post offices should begin offering financial services, such as cheque-cashing, small loans, bill payments, international money transfers and prepaid cards to which salaries or benefits could be transferred. The reasoning is simple: a lot of Americans have scant⁷ access to banks and a lot of post offices have too little to do.
今年初，美邮总监发布的白皮书显示邮政业要开始提供金融服务，这些服务包括支票兑现，小额贷款，账单支付，国际转账以及能够预支的工资卡。这么做的原因很简单：许多美国人对银行的需求得不到满足而一堆邮局又无事可做。
More than one-quarter of American households are unbanked or underbanked, meaning they either lack a current or savings⁸ account, or they have one but still use alternatives to banks such as cheque-cashers and payday lenders. That is an expensive habit: the average underbanked household has an annual income of only $25,500 or so, yet spends around 9.5% of that on fees and interest charged by these banking substitutes.
超过四分之一的美国家庭没有银行账户或者没有得到充足的金融服务，这意味着他们没有这种倾向或者没有储蓄账户，也可能他们有账户，但选择如支票承兑人或发薪日贷款人等替代方式。这是种代价很高的习惯：一般来说没有银行账户的家庭年均收入25500美元，而支付给这种银行替代机构的费用和利息达到9.5%左右。
High-street banks find it hard to make money serving poor customers, since they tend to have little money on deposit that the banks can lend out. Penalties such as overdraft⁹ fees are not always enough to compensate¹⁰. Since 2008, 93% of bank-branch closings have come in areas where median household income is below the national average.
大型银行为穷人提供服务很难赚到钱，因为他们的存款太少，而银行要把这些钱贷出去。透支费这种惩罚措施并不总是能够偿还成本。自2008年起，93%的支行陷入这样的境地—家庭账户收入的中值低于国家平均水平。
These are the distressed¹¹ customers to whose rescue the USPS hopes to ride. Some 59% of its post offices are in places with either a single bank or none at all. In rural hamlets they are often one of very few commercial establishments; even in the postal service's diminished state, there are still more than seven post offices for every Walmart in America. Post offices already sell money orders and provide electronic remittances¹² to nine Latin American countries; from 1911 to 1967 the USPS also held personal deposits. Providing small, brief loans at lower interest rates than payday lenders could save low-income consumers hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in interest and fees. The post office would compete not with banks, but with their more expensive stand-ins.
正式这些贫穷的顾客点燃了美邮的希望。美邮59%的邮政所周围只有一家或者没有银行。在美国乡下，他们常常是为数不多的商业机构之一；即使是在邮政服务日益萧条的州，邮政所和沃尔玛的数量比也大于7:1。邮政所造就开始向9个拉丁美洲国家卖邮政汇票并提供电子汇款服务；1911年到1967年之间，美邮还有个人存款业务。提供利率比发薪日贷款人低的小额短期贷款，能为低收入客户节省数亿甚至数十亿美元的利息和费用。邮政局不是和银行竞争，而是在和比银行收费高的替代机构竞争。
Some, notably¹³ the head of the committee of the House of Representatives that oversees¹⁴ the USPS, are unconvinced. They see the postal services' expansion into financial services as government overreach, and a delay of the necessary “right-sizing” of a massive agency that does far less than it used to. Jennifer Tescher, who heads a charity focused on the underbanked called the Centre for Financial Services Innovation, notes that the USPS “has zero capacity, understanding or capability¹⁵ in this arena”. “The only asset they bring to the table”, she believes, “is distribution.” Even that is of limited value outside rural areas: Ms Tescher notes that just because a spot lacks bank branches does not mean it has no cheque-cashers and corner shops selling prepaid cards—many with longer and more convenient opening hours than the post office.
众议院委员会负责人指出美邮的做法明显不具信服力。他们把邮政业扩张到金融领域的行为视作政府的手伸的太长，认为这是在拖延这个远远低于过去功效的大型机构合理精简的步伐。一个专注于那些无法得到充分金融服务的人的慈善团体—金融服务创新中心的负责人詹妮弗说美邮不了解这一领域，既没资格也没能力。她相信美邮唯一的优势是渠道，即使这在农村以外地区基本没有价值。Tescher女士提到这些区域缺少银行网点并不意味着没有支票承兑人和贩卖预付卡的小店—和邮局相比，他们的营业时间更长、更方便。
Although turning the USPS into a part-time financial institution may seem outlandish in America, roughly 1 billion people in 50 countries rely on their postal systems for financial services, according to the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations agency that helps the post arrive on time. The business models vary widely. In some countries post offices act as a payment centre, allowing people to receive remittances, pay bills and top up or tap money stored on their mobile phones. Some operate full-service banks: Japan Post, for instance, is one of the world's biggest. In other countries, such as Brazil, commercial banks form partnerships¹⁶ with post offices; in Malawi private banks can rent space from post offices.
根据万国邮政联盟，尽管美邮成为兼职的金融机构在美国看起来很奇怪，但世界上50个国家的10亿人依靠邮政系统提供的金融服务。这种商业模式差别很大。在一些国家，邮局充当支付中心的角色，人们可以接收汇款、支付账单利用移动电话存取款。有一些则成为提供全面服务的银行：比如日本邮政就是世界上最大的银行之一。在像巴西一类国家，商业银行和邮政成为合作伙伴；在马拉维，私人银行能向邮局租借场地。
A World Bank study found last year that postal banks are likelier than conventional ones to provide accounts to those outside the financial mainstream¹⁷. The bigger the postal network, the greater the ability to reach such people. That may not convince those who would like to see the USPS shrink, but for those who want to preserve it, it could help to justify¹⁸ its scale.
去年世界银行研究发现，相对于传统银行，邮政银行更有可能为主流金融区域之外的人提供服务。邮政网络越大，接触到这些人的能力就越大。这也许不足以说服那些希望美邮精简的人，但对于那些想要保持它的人来说，这能帮助他们证明美邮规模的合理性。

1 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

2 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

5 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

6 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 scant   

adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略

参考例句：

• Don't scant the butter when you make a cake.做糕饼时不要吝惜奶油。
• Many mothers pay scant attention to their own needs when their children are small.孩子们小的时候，许多母亲都忽视自己的需求。

8 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

9 overdraft   

n.透支，透支额

参考例句：

• Her bank warned that unless she repaid the overdraft she could face legal action.银行警告她如果不偿还透支钱款，她将面临诉讼。
• An overdraft results when a note discounted at a bank is not met when due.银行贴现的支票到期而未能支付就成为透支。

10 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

11 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

12 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

13 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

14 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

15 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

16 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

17 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

18 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？