And in times of financial turmoil, when depositors became wary of private banks, they have been willing to place funds in postal savings at significantly less than the privately offered return. There have been times when this helped to stabilize the situation, as postal savings were redeposited directly to solvent banks reducing the amount of cash drain out of the banking system. But there were other times – perhaps the most important example being in the United States in the 1930s – when shifts to postal savings became disruptive because such recycling did not occur and important lending intermediaries were deprived of funds
