Latinos wire tons of dollars home

CHICAGO — Money talks, of course — and in Utah it increasingly speaks a couple of languages.

Latino immigrants across the United States sent some $25 billion to their native countries last year, according to New York-based media consultant Michael Zamba. Mexico's share of that, he said, surpassed the country's oil- and tourism-related income.

That kind of money becomes even more impressive when one takes into account the fact that immigrants tend to work the lowest-paying jobs. Still, "everybody sends money home," said Martin Torres, the former Mexican consul for Salt Lake City

These "remittances," as they're called in financial circles, often mean immigrants are intensely frugal. That frugality is visible: Immigrants often live in small apartments with multiple roommates and can't afford new cars. Hence the parked, ailing cars in some immigrant neighborhoods.

Western Union-type offices used to reap the lion's share of service charges, but now banks are getting a piece of the remittance action.

"As a company, we've opened more accounts for Latinos than any other accounts," said Mark Chapman, Wells Fargo's Utah spokesman. "We've just started tracking that in July 2003, and we've found (Latinos) are our fastest-growing segment of customers."

The number of people using Wells Fargo to wire money to Latin America has risen 235 percent since the start of 2003, he added. As for the amount of money being sent, that has gone up 289 percent.

"I was blown away," Chapman added. "This has become a huge thing for us."

Like other large Utah banks, Wells Fargo has made its brochures, ATMs and Web site speak Spanish, too. When it comes time for a customer to wire money to Mexico, Wells Fargo uses its partner and Mexico's largest financial institution, Bancomer. And the Utah branches accept the matricula consular, a Mexican government-issued photo identification card, as one form of ID for customers.

The number of matricula-carrying people opening accounts at Wells Fargo fluctuates from month to month, Chapman said. But even the figures are impressive: Since July, 600 to 800 accounts per month were opened with the matricula. The card meets the bank's strict criteria since it's very difficult to falsify, he added.

Zions Bank also accepts the matricula and has stepped up its outreach to all Utah Latinos, Mexican and otherwise.

"We've become more active in our marketing to the Hispanic community in the past four to five years," said Rob Brough, Zions' vice president for public relations. "We opened up Hispanic financial centers in existing branches, where we have employees who speak Spanish. Those were established in 2001, and we now have seven of them in Utah."