Russian postal bank: expensive package

Russia is creating a new banking mammoth. A postal bank would have some 40,000 branches, 75,000 staff and cost anything up to $15 billion. In principle, it’s not a bad idea. But Russia does not need another government-controlled financial powerhouse. The bank could become an expensive white elephant. A century or so ago, post office banks were cutting edge, bringing the poor into the modern financial world. That may still be true in countries such as Brazil, which started its own Banco Postal i...