Post Office plans pilot scheme for post finance

The post office has taken another step towards competing with the financial sector with a pilot scheme to open advice shops.

Postfinance, a division of the post office, will open three or four shops this autumn. The shops will be located in post offices in three or four cities across the country, but the exact locations have not yet been decided.

Another of the shops will be opened in a major shopping centre.

“In future, it will be important for post offices to set up in places where the customers are,” said post office spokesman, Jürg Bücher.

Postfinance is still awaiting the go-ahead from parliament to set up in business. The government plans to fund Postfinance by selling some of its shares in the former state telecommunications company, Swisscom.