During the spring, PTS carried out a geographically delimited procurement of the services cash withdrawals and bill payment. This procurement encompasses 15 communities and 73 rural areas. ICA Banken and Kuponginlösen have now been jointly engaged to provide these services for a contract term of seven years.
The 15 communities are places where the Swedish Counter Service is being closed down and where PTS has assessed that there is a need for these services. The services procured in the 15 communities consist of being able to pay bills using cash and cards, make cash withdrawals using a card as well as cash postal giro (PlusGiro) cheques. The aim is for the new services to be in place when the Swedish Counter Service is closed down.
In the 73 rural areas currently covered by Posten AB’s rural delivery services, or alternatively by ‘mailbag’ services, the new services will be available as of 1 December. These services will enable the cashing of postal giro (PlusGiro) cheques through rural carriers as well as the making of bill payments using cash.
PTS is striving to ensure that persons over the age of 80 or who have a functional impairment and use the Swedish Counter Service via the extended rural delivery service are to continue to have access to similar services.
Background
Following a resolution by the Riksdag, the Swedish Counter Service will be closed down during the second half of 2008. In connection with this change, PTS has been assigned to carry out a procurement in the locations where the market does not provide for basic payment services. There are currently 370 Swedish Counter Service branch offices and 130 partners of the Swedish Counter Service located in Sweden. Nearly half of the Swedish Counter Service’s customers will be able to continue using services at the same offices as before, since 76 branch offices will be taken over by Nordea and become branch offices of the bank.
Use of the Swedish Counter Service has declined by approximately 15 to 20 per cent annually in the past few years. Currently, around 1 to 2 per cent of the Swedish population regularly turn to the Swedish Counter Service to pay bills and withdraw cash. The majority use other alternatives, such as the account-based payment services of banks, e.g. Brevgiro, Autogiro, electronic giro and different types of credit and account cards for cash withdrawals in shops or from cashpoints. To make it easier for consumers to find simple and cost-effective alternatives for payment services, PTS launched an information and training campaign on 20 May. This campaign will continue throughout 2008. For more information about the campaign, go to www.betalinfo.se.
For more information, please contact Sten Selander, head of Postal Affairs Department, tel. 0708-15 10 00.
The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) monitors the electronic communications and postal sectors in Sweden. The term ‘electronic communications’ includes telephony, the Internet and radio. The Agency works with consumer and competition issues, efficient utilisation of resources and secure communications. Read more at www.pts.se.