Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member legalatina's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    2,359

    Chelsea,MA: Wire Services-Profiteers of illegal immigration

    Well since they named many of these local mom-pop profiteers of illegal immigration....shouldn't the Boston ICE office start looking into their customers (for money laundering, drug money, human smuggling ransom payments and other immigration violations)?

    Beating the bank
    Shops fill a void marketing money transfer services to immigrants
    Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Maria Sacchetti
    Globe Staff / April 15, 2008

    CHELSEA - On the outskirts of this immigrant city, Broadway Laundry is fighting for every dollar it can get. Don't speak English? Every employee is fluent in Spanish. Don't have a car? A minivan will pick up customers for free.

    more stories like this

    But the biggest attraction sits behind a giant window: A kiosk that allows immigrants to send money to relatives in their homelands - and sometimes it arrives before their clothes are dry.

    "You've got to have the edge," said owner Christopher Fazio, the son of Italian immigrants, standing near the kiosk, next to shelves of bulging bags of laundry. "Competition is pretty fierce around here."

    Immigrants in Massachusetts are sending home hundreds of millions of dollars each year, and increasingly that money is coming from such places as Vinny's Food Market in Revere, Lam's Bridal in Worcester, and Mundo Evangelico, a religious-goods shop in Brockton. But researchers say one institution is conspicuously lagging in the business: banks.

    Nationwide, banks are facing calls to pursue a bigger share of the $100 billion money-transfer market as a way to attract immigrants, saying the one-stop shops that offer bill-paying, check-cashing, and other financial services come at a cost: Immigrant customers aren't learning about savings accounts or ways to increase earn ings. Meanwhile, banks are missing out on potential customers.

    Some officials, such as those at the World Bank, also say more competition could lower money-transfer fees. In general, fees at money-transfer services have fallen in recent years to about 4 percent to 10 percent of the amount.

    At Broadway Laundry, for example, customers pay $10 to send up to $1,000 to Mexico and $8 to send up to $300 to Honduras through Vigo, a Western Union subsidiary, and MoneyGram.

    Less than a mile away from the laundromat on the same street, TD Banknorth commands a prime location across from City Hall, in the middle of a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. The bank offers money transfers at a similar cost to Broadway Laundry but does not promote the service. The only sign out front is an offer, in English, to buy or sell foreign currency. The sign displays flags from Germany, Switzerland, and other countries, though none from Latin America.

    "We are trying to target everybody," said Anne Cerami, the regional manager who oversees the Chelsea office. "If we put a sign out there in Spanish, are we now going to alienate people?"

    Government officials and researchers say banks are focused on their bread and butter: bank accounts, loans, and investments. Some banks are also skittish about money transfers: They worry about money laundering, complying with antiterrorism laws dealing with remittances, or public outcry if they serve illegal immigrants, who often send money. And many banks don't have affiliates in foreign lands where the money can be picked up.Continued...

    Money-transfer services are filling the void. In Massachusetts, their agents have soared to 2,295 from just 1,300 a few years ago. Massachusetts residents sent an estimated $579 million to Latin American countries alone in 2006, up nearly 10 percent from 2004, according to a survey for the Inter-American Development Bank.

    Local immigrants say they prefer money-transfer companies to banks because of the convenience, minimal paperwork, and abundance of locations. A few immigrants said they avoided banks because they are here illegally and need identification to open a bank account; in general, Western Union and other transfer services don't require identification to send less than $1,000.

    Money-transfer shops are also open long hours to accommodate the varied shifts that immigrants work. And, unlike many banks, these one-stop shops are aggressively courting immigrants.

    Broadway Laundry, tucked into a neighborhood of three-deckers, started sending remittances six months ago after Fazio renovated his father's 20-year-old laundromat. Now giant banners hang outside advertising money transfers. The laundromat is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

    Down the road, TD Banknorth's outreach is more subdued. Inside, one of the branch's seven employees speaks Spanish, and some posters and brochures are in Spanish. The hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. most days.

    Cerami said the bank is a friendly place that sends remittances, but only for people who sign up for accounts at the bank. "We're happy to provide that service," she said.

    One challenge, Cerami said, is that many immigrants fear banks, in part because in other countries banks sometimes fail, and customers lose their money.

    But research suggests that attitude is not universal. A national survey of 1,200 immigrants last year found that more than half of Dominican and Jamaican immigrants had bank accounts in the United States, while most Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants did not. A Massachusetts poll found that 70 percent of Brazilians had accounts here as well, said Alvaro Lima, a Boston researcher who conducted the survey for a national nonprofit.

    At Broadway Laundry, customers looked puzzled when asked why they don't use banks to send money. One woman said she thought banks didn't offer that service.

    Even bank account holders said they do not use banks to send money home, because places like Broadway Laundry are nearby and quick. Jorge Gonzalez, a 41-year-old bakery supervisor who sent $200 to his elderly father in Guatemala in seconds last week, has never used a bank.

    "It just didn't grab my attention," said Gonzalez, a US citizen who has sent money home for 22 years. "It's easier to come here. You can come here, and it's quick."

    But researchers say immigrants and banks are both missing financial opportunities - immigrants could learn about new investments and banks could win loyal customers.

    "If you go to a laundromat, you will just do your laundry," said Manuel Orozco, a senior associate at Inter-American Dialogue in Washington who conducted the national survey last year on immigrants and banking. "If you go to send money through a bank, you can have opportunity to open a bank account, you can have the opportunity to have credit."

    Steven Antonakes, the commissioner of banks in Massachusetts, said that he favored having more banks reach out to immigrants, but that it was unlikely that many banks would move into the money-transfer business because they don't have partners in foreign lands who can deliver the money.

    But in Massachusetts, some banks are making inroads.

    Citizens Bank, the second-largest bank in the Commonwealth, partnered last year with the Bank of China to send remittances and has launched programs to India, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic in recent years. This year, it will start a program to Brazil, said bank spokesman Michael Jones.

    In Lawrence, former TD Banknorth executive Pedro Arce, who is from Ecuador, is raising millions of dollars to open the first Latino-led bank in Massachusetts - Veritas Bank - which will offer full-service banking, money transfers, Spanish-speaking personnel, and extended hours. Red Sox player Mike Lowell, born in Puerto Rico, is on the advisory board.

    In Chelsea, the only money-transfer competition next to Broadway Laundry is a Guatemalan bakery across the street and a minimarket two blocks away. Fazio marvels that the laundromat, which once relied only on the quarters that customers deposited in machines, now sends money to foreign countries.

    "It's amazing for a little laundromat," he said.

    Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.
    © Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Santa Clarita Ca
    Posts
    9,714
    I saw this in Jamaica Plain/Roxbury 20 years ago, a store front called Dominican Express.This was a store front that cashed payroll checks and then sent money to families in the Dominican Republic for a large fee.

    The dollars where then transferred to a NY Bank and invested for the offshore interest this washed pesos. At the time (not sure now) the Peso was not good anywhere except on the island and many rich folks wanted to invest in the stock market.

    At the time the official island exchange rate was about 10 to 1
    Customers in Boston got 8 to 1 and paid to cash the check and a transfer fee a runner on the island would deliver the $ for another fee paid upon delivery

    The folks selling the peso for US currency were charged 20 t0 1 and
    the usual investment fees by the NY broker
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    5,262
    I tried to set up a remittance company sending money to Brazil with Travelex Thomas Cook and BankBoston. The BankBoston was a reputable bank operating in both New England and Brazil and so I felt could be more active in offering services.


    BankBoston itself was only doing it's transfers with an immediate conversion to Brazilian currency. Traxelex Thomas Cook allowed the clients to keep transferred money in dollars. The system I set up would have allowed a customer at BankBoston to transfer first to Travelex Thomas Cook.


    With a Socialist at the top of the polls I felt the Brazilians would want protection from bad policy. It turned out Lula was prudent despite being a Socialist and so it never got off the ground.


    BankBoston only allowed people with legal immigration status to open accounts so I would not have been dealing with illegals.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  4. #4
    Senior Member legalatina's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    2,359
    Many legal immigrants send the money on behalf of their illegal immigrant relatives or friends when they get questioned for identification. Some are probably paid to do so as well. Legal immigrants who have nothign to hide can easily open a regular bank account and transfer/wire money like anyone else through their bank.

  5. #5
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    9,253
    I think all money transfers out the country should be taxed HEAVILY!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
    "

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •