President Ronald Reagan famously said in 1986, “The nine mostterrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from thegovernment, and I'm here to help.'”

Look at the impact the CFPBhas had on credit unions' services, including curbing oreliminating wire transfer services from their portfolios. The CFPBwas created to protect consumers in the U.S., yet it is reachingbeyond those borders and holding banks and credit unionsresponsible when they perform more than 100 transactions in ayear.

The CFPB and the Department of Defense are both working onpayday lending regulations. The CFPB payday loan regulation is expected to include underwritingrequirements, which is precisely what many consumers of thisproduct were looking to avoid. Meanwhile the DoD regs would capsmall-dollar loan interest rates at 36%, including fees.

Now the U.S. Postal Service is eyeing an entrance into financialservices, particularly in areas such as wire transfers and paydaylending. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would suggest that theCFPB was created to drive financial institutions out of thesemarkets to make way for the USPS. After all, the further expansionof the USPS into financial services has been endorsed by none otherthan Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the mother of theCFPB.

The USPS said it is looking to financial services to growrevenue. According to the USPS Office of Inspector General'sreport, it is already the top provider of money orders, the mostpopular alternative financial service in the U.S. The USPS sold 97million money orders to 13 million customers in fiscal year 2014,and earned $165 million in revenue. By expanding its use ofexisting authorities covering wire transfers, check cashing, billpayment, prepaid cards and basic ATM space rental, the USPSestimated it could earn $1.1 billion in revenue within five years.Other approaches include partnering with one bank, working withdifferent institutions for each business line, or creating afinancial services marketplace using existing financial services'products. The final, and most aggressive approach, would be for theUSPS to gain authority to operate its own bank.

There are so many bad ways this could go and I'm not sure whereto start. The USPS in first fiscal quarter of 2015 (October throughDecember 2014), reported a $754 million net loss – in one quarter.Last year the USPS lost $5.5 billion, and yet, as stated in theOIG's white paper, touted a slight increase in revenue. Growingrevenue is important, but it seems getting expenses under controlwould be much more critical. Additionally, in one of the releases,the CFO admits they need to invest in equipment that has been putoff in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reported that firstclass mail declined 35% over the past decade, and high retireebenefit payments are draining the USPS. It reached its $15 billioncredit limit from the Treasury in 2012, according to WSJ.

So the USPS cannot operate its primarybusiness successfully. It has not evolved with the disruption ofthe Internet and more efficient, private competitors. Now it isasking to move into a similarly disrupted industry in which it haslittle expertise and a proven inability to contain costs whileproviding financial services to a sector that's proven difficult toprofit from. And I must point out that nothing but the USPS haskept it from expanding further with the authorities it has. TheUSPS hasn't evolved, hasn't cut enough costs and hasn't raisedenough revenue. It just hasn't anything and now it's panictime.

According to the New Republic, 68 million are unbanked. Itrefers to “needed amenities” yet many of the unbanked avoidfinancial services by choice. Some have had accounts and decidedit's not for them. More than 11 million people in the U.S. are hereillegally, according to PewResearch, and likely would decide it best not to go to agovernment entity for financial services. Contrary to the USPSassertions about bank branch closings, the AARP Foundation foundthat location is not as big a factor as once believed in consumers'decisions to go unbanked.

NAFCU and CUNA are opposing the USPS expansion. CUNA made thepoint that credit unions need to increase awareness among theunbanked of affordable credit union services. Further, the tradegroup added that loosening field of membership restrictions wouldassist credit unions in serving the unbanked. The question then is whether the credit union community, as awhole, has the will.