The previous two articles in this series identified how Australia Post's defined-benefit pension issues and the related impact on the group's balance sheet and income statement have set the scene for Australia Post to enter Australia's retail banking market. New Zealand Post's Kiwibank has shown such an entry can be successful and highly lucrative for Australia Post and its single shareholder, the Commonwealth government. Like New Zealand Post, it is likely that Australia Post has reviewed the business case for a Kiwibank-style initiative over the years. However, the post-financial crisis banking landscape, ie, the utter dominance by the Big Four, certainly increases the attractiveness of providing a market alternative (backed by Australia Post's trusted brand, vast retail network and transactions expertise).While it is not the intention to create a full business plan for a potential Kiwibank-style launch by Australia Post (as noted below, veteran banker Mike Pratt seems to have already established a compelling case), the final instalment of this series looks at how Australia Post might overcome several potential barriers to launching a Kiwibank-style banking initiative in Australia.Banking business case already scoped by Australia Post In January 2010, the Crikey website reported that the first Kevin Rudd government had commissioned former Westpac consumer banking head Mike Pratt to undertake a scoping study to explore whether Australia Post could replicate the Kiwibank model in Australia. Although the report was unconfirmed, Crikey stated that the findings were very positive but Australia Post's then CEO Graeme John wasn't interested in pursuing the idea.Nor it would seem was the then chair David Mortimer, who late in 2010 told The Australian newspaper: "I would be shocked if the government ever gave us permission to become a bank for the very simple reason that it involves the government balance sheet and that is not our business".However, since then, there has been a changing of the guard, with former Telstra CFO John Stanhope taking over as chair, and former National Australia Bank Australian CEO Ahmed Fahour taking over as Australia Post's chief executive.Interestingly, it was Ahmed Fahour who initiated and drove the launch of UBank, NAB's unique online start-up, which boasts of satisfaction levels that are "amongst the highest of any institution in Australia". And it was Fahour who engaged Gerd Schenkel, the technological force behind NAB's UBank, to spend most of 2010 consulting with Australia Post.That said, to date, Fahour and his executive team have understandably been focused on addressing Australia Post's core operational and financial challenges.With the group's restructuring changes now bedded down, the stage is seems set for Fahour and his team to take full advantage of Australia Post's capabilities and the attractive market gap in Australian retail banking (with the financial pressure from the aforementioned defined-benefit pension scheme probably increasing their enthusiasm as well).'Bank' could have Australia's largest branch networkOf the 3,250 Bank@Post Australia Post outlets that currently offer banking and other services, around a third are controlled by Australia Post.This equates to a branch network roughly equal in size to the Westpac