July 2, 2026 11:59AM 

# Postal Banking Has Died With Zero Customers in Years 

By [Nicholas Anthony](https://www.cato.org/people/nicholas-anthony) 

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The United States Postal Service has finally laid the postal banking pilot program to rest. However, it’s unlikely anyone noticed. The program didn’t have a single customer from April 2022 to September 2025 (Table 1).

![No one used the postal banking pilot program for years](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AV3jN/with-logo.png) 

The [close of the program](https://prc.arkcase.com/api/prc-dockets/filing/downloadFile?fileId=249221&inline=true) is welcome news, but it should never have gotten off the ground to begin with. [Postal banking ended in 1966](https://www.cato.org/blog/going-postal-proposals-post-office-banking-2020) for a simple reason: it wasn’t popular. There was no reason to think that had changed in 2021 when this program kicked off, and the data confirm this.

Looking forward, Congress should remove the [postal banking loophole](https://www.cato.org/blog/postal-banking-still-lingers-its-time-close-loophole) by amending the [Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act](https://www.congress.gov/109/plaws/publ435/PLAW-109publ435.pdf) to prohibit the United States Postal Service from engaging in new financial services without congressional approval. It’s time to put postal banking to rest once and for all.

##### Related Tags 

[Banking and Finance](https://www.cato.org/banking-finance), [Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives](https://www.cato.org/center-monetary-financial-alternatives) 

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