Page 6 - Eurogiro News May 2013_web version

6 Eurogiro News
"It is vision, not technology that changes the world" was a key statement from
Steven McGinnes, of Hummingbird, as he spoke to the Eurogiro delegates about the
value of vision-led marketing. Winners sought to empower the lives of people. The
posts had been winners in the past when they were at the heart of local communities
providing communication, commerce and a place to meet. Today, Posts faced the
challenges of radical changes in mobility, technology and communications and yet
the posts had unique access to clients at both initiating and receiving ends of their
services - if they collaborated - and should be able to find new ways to engage, be
relevant and be remarkable.
‘The cost of payments’ had been studied by a range
of European central banks and Mr. Lajos Bartha, of
Hungarian Central Bank, presented the findings.
Although no common best practice had yet emerged in
Europe, there was an on-going effort to reduce cash.
It was clearly expected that efficiency gains would
follow, in terms of reduced social costs related to the
execution of payments. In Hungary, a society of heavy
cash usage, a variety of measures to reduce cash was
being introduced, including, for instance, more frequent
clearing cycles and higher tax on cash withdrawals.
In order to promote the use of cashless payment instru-
ments the central bank of Hungary, a national plan had
been launched to develop the financial infrastructure in
a coordinated way until 2020.
Ma. Josefina Dela Cruz, PHLPost, Postmaster General & CEO,
told her story of transforming PHLPost to be "the preferred
provider of communications, goods and postal payments
services", dwelling on the efforts to regain the trust of the
Filipinos. By means of re-branding, rationalisation, new
products, partnerships and also, most recently, corridor
marketing initiatives, the new management of PHLPost, in
place since 2010, has turned a loss-making enterprise into
a profitable logistic business. A policy of zero pilferage and
timely delivery services attracts clients who benefit from
classical postal payments services such as home delivery,
as well as bills payments and e-remittances. This is a remark-
able example of how a vision has proved its value and how
collaboration with partners across remittance corridors has
contributed to the success.