By Anthony Harrup
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY – Bank of America has teamed up with several Mexican banks and government-run agencies to offer free money transfers for Mexicans living in the United States.
Bank officials said Wednesday the business aim of the transfer service – called SafeSend – is to gain customers among a sector of the population in which relatively few people have bank accounts.

"We don't see ourselves in the remittances market," said Eduardo Vergara, senior vice president in charge of international remittances at Bank of America. He said that 41 percent of Hispanic households in the U.S. have accounts at the bank.

The entry of commercial banks into the remittance business in recent years has lowered considerably the commissions and exchange losses that migrant workers were paying to send money to their families.

At a news conference, Vergara said Bank of America, which has 5,880 branches across the U.S., will also exchange dollars for pesos at the interbank rate, which is updated daily.

Recipients will be able to collect the money at 4,500 locations across Mexico, at branches of Grupo Financiero Banorte, Santander Central Hispano unit Santander Serfin, the government savings bank Bansefi and the government-run telegraph service Telecomm-Telegrafos.

Officials of the receiving banks said they also expect the service to benefit them by contributing to growing use of bank services in Mexico.

Ultimately, the idea is to get people to conduct account-to-account transactions, which are cheaper to process, said Banorte Chief Executive Luis Pena.

Recipients frequently take the money out in cash, count it and then deposit it in a different account at the same branch, Pena added.

Mexicans sent home US$16.6 billion (euro14 billion) in 2004, and the amount this year is expected to top US$20 billion (euro17 billion). The average amount of a transfer is US$300 (euro250).

Vergara said Bank of America will transfer up to US$1,500 (euro1,250) in a single transaction, and up to US$3,000 (euro2,500) per account holder in any 30-day period.

The Charlotte-based bank also said it accepts Mexican consular identification for migrants in the U.S. to open checking accounts.

Eds: Anthony Harrup is a correspondent of Dow Jones Newswires.