http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/17198.html


Gov´t launches website to help migrants

Wire services
El Universal
March 01, 2006

The government is launching a website to help Mexicans in the United States compare the costs of wiring money back home, officials announced Tuesday.
The website, which will go online in May, aims to help the 10 million Mexicans residing in the United States and their families in Mexico "to improve their standard of living by knowing the market," said Luis Fabre, vice president of the nation´s National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services.

Fabre said he hopes the website, www.remesamex.gob.mx , will generate more competition among the wire service companies used by Mexicans, who sent home US$20 billion last year. Remittances make up Mexico´s second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil.

The cost of wiring money from the United States to Mexico has dropped by 50 percent in the past seven years. It now costs about US$11 to send about US$300 to Mexico.

The website will feature a "calculator" in which users can enter in the amount of money they plan to send and it will give them estimated costs from different wire service companies. It also will tell users the amount of money their relatives will receive in Mexico after costs.


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The website also will give migrants in the United States directions to the closest wire service, as well as the closest office in Mexico where their relatives can collect the money.

"More information, more competition, and better conditions for the user," said Marco Carrera, director of market studies for the commission.

According to a news release, the following companies will be featured on the website: BBVA Bancomer, Bank of America, Banorte, Orlandi de Mexico, Wells Fargo, Western Union and Telecomm Telégrafos.