#wider postal sector players (wpsps)

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View to 2025.

On October 5, 2023, the Universal Postal Union concluded its fourth Extraordinary Congress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The five-day event, which brought together postal plenipotentiaries from around the world, saw several historic agreements made, including plans to increase the UPU’s engagement with wider postal sector players, new climate action targets, the modernization of postal financial services, and increasing the UPU’s regular budget ceiling to provide the organization with additional financial resources.

On the closing of the Congress, the UPU Director General reflected on the effect the decisions made in Riyadh would have on the organization’s future. “The Universal Postal Union, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year, was created with a simple yet profound mission: to connect the world through postal services. Over the decades, our organization has continuously evolved to meet the changing needs of our global community,” he said. “In Riyadh, we have paved the way towards an even more profound transformation, making pivotal and important decisions that will shape the future of our organization. The next regular Congress is set to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2025

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Postal financial services.

One area set to benefit from deeper engagement with WPSPs is postal financial services. In Riyadh, several proposals were adopted in this area, with a focus on ambitious modernization and interconnection with wider postal financial service players (WPFSPs). Proposals passed will bring about changes to postal financial services on two fronts. First, they will usher in improvements to the UPU’s legal framework for postal payments, known as the Postal Payments Services Agreement (PPSA). These changes are directed at increasing the interoperability of the postal payments network, including the establishment of conditions for interconnection with WPSPs; prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and financial crime; PPS*Clearing; remuneration and the global adoption of a trusted trademark, PosTransfer. The resolution also lays the groundwork for further broader changes to the UPU’s legal frameworks associated with postal payments and other postal financial services to identify opportunities related to diversification, the removal of outdated elements and the adoption of a more flexible approach to defining products and services, technologies, channels, and interoperability rules. This again includes rules for further engagement with WPFSPs. To promote the continued evolution of postal financial services worldwide, member countries have also agreed to start work towards establishing an advisory knowledge centre, subject to extrabudgetary funding. Prannoy Sharma, Deputy Director General (International Relations and Global Business), Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, India, and co-chair of the UPU Congress topic on postal financial services, believes that a new knowledge centre for postal financial services will be especially beneficial for developing countries. “The knowledge centre will provide member countries with best practices, knowledge sharing, technical assistance, help with financial literacy, information on regulatory frameworks, and promote financial inclusion and gender equality,” he said. “Once we secure extra funding and develop the centre, it will become a vital resource for postal financial services.” Speaking about the postal financial services proposals adopted in Riyadh in general, Sharma’s co-chair, M’hamed EL Moussaoui, Managing Director, and member of the Executive Board of Al Barid Bank, Poste Maroc, added: “Regarding the future of financial services, we have taken a significant step forward during this Congress with the adoption of these reforms.

A second part of the postal financial services reforms will be presented at the Dubai Universal Postal Congress in 2025.

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Wider postal sector engagement.

One of the headline agreements adopted in Riyadh will see deeper engagement of the UPU with wider postal sector players (WPSPs) – a topic which has been under discussion at the UN specialized agency for many years now. WPSPs refer to postal supply chain companies and partners outside the UPU network of government designated postal operators. The suite of proposals adopted in relation to this aim to bolster the development of a truly interconnected, efficient, and universal postal service for all. The UPU will now work on expanding and formalizing its relationship with WPSPs, including private sector companies. The decisions made in Riyadh introduce changes in three areas. First, they amend and better define the UPU’s institutional framework to encourage the participation of WPSPs in UPU discussions and decision-making processes through the organization’s Consultative Committee. Second, they enable WPSPs’ eventual access to specific sets of UPU products and services to encourage seamless network interconnection and improve the global quality of postal services. Following the decision, the UPU will work to establish the operational, technical, legal and policy frameworks needed to facilitate the exchange of postal items between national postal operators and WPSPs. It will also push forward the development of a solution that will bring together the demand and supply of UPU-certified international postal transport services, as well as an interface allowing WPSPs to easily capture and generate postal data required to ship items through the UPU’s universal postal network. Finally, the approval of these proposals provides a roadmap to ensure the organization’s continued modernization amidst rapid market changes and increasing competition. “There are some that say the proposals adopted for engagement with wider postal sector players are modest, but I believe the decisions made in Riyadh were extremely important,” said Stuart Smith, Chief of International Postal Affairs at the US Department of State, who co-chaired the work on this congress topic. “The first step is always the most important one, and now we have crossed the threshold hopefully we can travel on a glidepath into the future.” Smith believes that the biggest benefit of working closer with WPSPs will be within the area of products and services. “This will open new possibilities for cooperation and for building on things that are already happening commercially in the market. Hopefully this will enable more UPU operators to benefit from them,” he said. “Ultimately, working closer with WPSPs not only benefits designated operators, but it also benefits consumers and the citizens who use our services.” Smith’s co-chair, Samir Zouaoui, Deputy Director for the Development of Postal Activities at Algeria’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, believes that the WPSPs congress decision will help the UPU stay up to date with the rapidly changing market and put partnerships at the core of the postal sector’s evolution. “The approval of these proposals has left a big mark on the history of UPU,” he said. “In the future, the UPU and wider postal sector players will not necessarily be considered the competitors of designated operators, but instead they will be considered partners, and the postal sector will be built on the efforts of all.

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Shaping the future of postal interoperability.

Ready to Market Interoperability Group (RMIG): shaping the future of postal interoperability

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has launched a groundbreaking initiative called the Ready to Market Interoperability Group (RMIG). This initiative strengthens cooperation between Designated Operators (DOs) and wider postal sector players (WPSPs) to support growth, innovation and the sustainability in the postal ecosystem while directly addressing the needs of customers.

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