Posted on 09/28/2005 2:26:16 PM PDT by DumpsterDiver
Bank Benefits Millions of Hispanics by Eliminating Transfer Fees
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America today announced its free nationwide remittance service that is making it easier for millions of Hispanics to send money to Mexico by eliminating transfer fees. Called SafeSend(R), the new feature is available to anyone who has a Bank of America personal checking account.
Earlier this year, Bank of America became the first major financial institution in the United States to offer free remittances when it introduced the product in Chicago.
"We are proud to help millions of Hispanics send money for free to loved ones in Mexico," said Liam McGee, president of Global Consumer and Small Business Banking. "Adding the free SafeSend feature to our checking accounts is our way of saying that we want to do much more -- we want to be their bank of choice and help Hispanics develop rewarding, long-term financial relationships."
Responding to Hispanic Customers
According to Diane Morais, Consumer and Small Business Deposit & Debit Products executive at Bank of America, feedback from customers propelled the launch of national free SafeSend, as well as the new enhanced capabilities, including cash payments over the counter and greater access via a network of more than 4,500 locations throughout Mexico.
"Our Hispanic customers told us that they wanted lower transfer fees, money to be paid in cash over the counter in Mexico, and a broader distribution network convenient to their family and friends. We listened and we responded with new features to our SafeSend remittance service," Morais said.
Product Benefits:
* SafeSend is now a free feature of any Bank of America personal checking account.
* Recipients will be able to pick up cash at more than 4,500 locations throughout Mexico through Santander, BANSEFI/L@Red de la Gente, TELECOMM-TELEGRAFOS and Banorte.
* Customers benefit from a highly competitive foreign exchange rate, and since there are no fees and no ATM cards required by the beneficiary to access their cash, the beneficiary can actually receive more money.
* Customers can identify up to three beneficiaries, and send up to $1,500 per remittance and up to a total of $3,000 over a rolling 30-day period.
* Customers are able to send money with one easy phone call, seven days a week, between 8 a.m. and 1 a.m. Eastern Time.
Commitment to Financial Empowerment of Hispanic Community Mexico and United States Hispanic leaders applauded the bank's demonstrated commitment to the Hispanic community.
"Free SafeSend's national expansion is another example of Bank of America's commitment to help hard- working Latinos save more of their hard-earned money," said Janet Murguia, executive director and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza. "But most important is the significance of helping this community take the first step toward achieving financial empowerment by establishing a relationship with a financial institution."
Almost half of all United States Hispanic immigrants send money regularly to their home country (Pew Hispanic Center). According to information from Mexico's Central Bank (Banco de Mexico), Mexico received $16.6 billion in remittances in 2004. This figure is expected to grow to almost $20 billion in 2005.
For Mexico, remittance payments from the United States are second only to cash from oil exports as a source of income.
"We applaud the efforts of Bank of America as it delivers this much-needed free remittance service and continues to demonstrate its unwavering commitment to our community," said Ruben Beltran, the Mexican Consul General, Los Angeles. "Bank of America has recognized the importance of its Hispanic customers for many years and continues to address our needs, including sending money to support our families. We join Bank of America in challenging other financial institutions to follow suit and work toward a lower-priced or free alternative for sending money to Mexico."
Free SafeSend also demonstrates the bank's ongoing commitment to increase the number of Hispanics with checking accounts. According to a June 9 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announcement, more than 40 million Hispanics live in the United States, but half of that population - nearly 20 million Hispanics - do not have a basic bank account. Of the 43.5 million Hispanics living in the United States, 67.2 percent are of Mexican descent (Synovate, 2004).
Bank of America Promotes Opportunities
Bank of America proves its leadership in the Hispanic community through employment, entrepreneurship, community investments, charitable giving and more. Steadily building half of its new stores in highly populated Hispanic- dense neighborhoods, Bank of America also continues its efforts to actively recruit bilingual associates. In fact, during 2004, of all new hires in banking centers, nearly half were bilingual and 80 percent of those were Spanish speakers. Hispanic associates make up 15.5 percent of the domestic workforce at Bank of America, surpassing the national Hispanic labor force share of 13 percent.(1) Serving the needs of its Hispanic customers remains a top priority for Bank of America, which provides Spanish information and services online at http://www.bankofamerica.com/espanol and through voice-guided telephone support at 1-800-688-6086.
In addition, Bank of America is supporting the nationwide launch of free SafeSend with an integrated national mass media campaign including Spanish- language print, outdoor and TV, as well as bilingual materials in its banking centers.
About Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships with more than 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,600 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 11 million active users. Bank of America is the number one overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the number one SBA lender to minority- owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the United States Fortune 500 companies and 85 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
(1) Fry, Richard. 2005. Hispanics: A People in Motion. Trends 2005: 72.
SOURCE Bank of America
Big Bucks for Mexico!
Nothing like making it easy to ship $16.6 billion out of our economy...
How about just transferring the (illegal) Mexicans themselves back to Mexico...
Not a surprise there.
More banks (including US Bank here in the Twin Cities) are accepting the Matricula Consular (sp?) card issued by Mexican consulates.
It's not a US-issued ID card...but what the hell, right? It's all about profit. Not what's right or wrong.
Corporate America...bless 'em for giving me a decent job.
But curse 'em for not being able to distinguish betyween right and wrong.
Bank of America...what a joke...how do you say that in Spanish..or do they speak Mexican..
I think it should be illeagal to send money out.....tax it 50%...yeah now theres the ticket
That's the final straw...I am closing all my accounts.
I would believe, however, that this new "product" by this humanitarian oriented bank was "suggested" by the IRS......
We could only hope?
Take our money, take our jobs!
I closed mine a few years ago when the branch in my town started having their signs in Spanish and tellers who could barely speak English.
I know what you mean. I always try to avoid having to use the lobby, but sometimes that's not possible. I closed my BofA accounts because it was highly inconvenient to do business there. There was always such a long line (up to 30 people) anytime I had to go into the lobby, and it was full of illegals (about 70% of the people in line) that where trying to cash paychecks. These people didn't even have accounts with the bank, and slowed things down considerably due to difficulty in communicating. I decided that if BofA didn't care about inconveniencing account holders, they really didn't appreciate or value my business. So I went to Chase. They're not perfect, but I rarely have to wait in line, or at the most 2 minutes.
Dealing with them was a freaking nightmare. I needed a power of attorney to get the registration for my leased car. It took them 90 days each year. Meanwhile, I am driving around with expired tags. When I told a customer service supervsior that I would start taking 90 days to pay, she hung up on me.
The final year of the lease, I actually had to write my Congressman to get them to get a power of attorney. I never receiveda call or apology.
Glad they can roll out the red carpet for illegals, though. I guess they have set their priorities.
I have been a BofA customer for 9 years. Looks like it's time to look into a different bank. I will no longer be a customer by the end of this week!
Well let's see here.
Illegal aliens are breaking the law just by being here.
A U.S. citizen who profits from illegal activity, such as dealing in drugs is subject to forfeit his ill gotten gains(houses, cars, cash, whatever) should he be caught.
A bank who is transfering funds out of the country for somebody they know is a drug dealer, would they be in any trouble for knowlingly doing that? Wouldn't it be their duty to alert the authorities? I don't know the answer to that question.
But if the bank could be held accountable for that, then how would this be any different?
BofA is indeed behind the push to use the Matricular Consular ID to be used across the country. Here are some highlights from BofA's congressional testimony in 2002:
"Every single Bank of America banking center recognizes the Matricula as a valid form of identification. We believe that banking services ought to be made available to everyone so that they can manage their money without carrying large sums of cash..."
Now this part makes me feel so much better, seeing as how cooperation from Mexican officials is and always always been so superb (they like us, they really like us!):
"...Because verification requirements are so important when issuing identification documents, we strongly encourage the US and Mexican governments to work together to ensure that the Consulates have the best authentication measures in place..."
"RECAP...By allowing more potential customers to use the Matricula to open new banking accounts, cash checks and subscribe to other banking services such as the remittance product, SafeSend, we believe that we are providing the opportunity for thousands to gain access, many for the first time, to mainstream banking services."
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:gbU4cx-Lr00J:143.231.169.144/pdf/ACF13F.pdf+%22Bank+of+America+Testimony+on+Matricula+Consular%22&hl=en
Ain't that a hoot? The only "authentication" needed is the cash to pay the fee to the Mexican consulate issuing the card.
On the bright side, the more that's sent out, ....the more that can be printed
>>>I closed mine a few years ago when the branch in my town started having their signs in Spanish and tellers who could barely speak English.>>>
I closed mine down when I kept getting customer service in India. I like understanding the language my bank speaks. Went to a local city bank.
I want to know how much if any the IRS is taking from these funds transferes. These people are stealing our country blind and then sending their paychecks home.
What a deal. Wake up IRS.
Snippets from my full post here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1472612/posts?page=38#38
- Services, ie but not limited to: public school enrollment, language proficiency programs, and building permits, that cater to illegal aliens have increased in areas that are considered gateways for immigration.
- The top nine states that account for 50% of illegal aliens are: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.
- Sole authority to govern immigration flow is placed on the federal government.
- Responsibility for providing support to legal and illegal immigrants rests with the state and local governments.
- Immigrants send home on average $1,400 to $1,500 per year through money transfers (also called Remittances).
- As per the World Bank in 2002, people sent $133 billion worldwide. Developing countries accounted for $88 billion of that.
- Remittances from the United States to Mexico have tripled to $13 billion between 1995 and 2003.
- As per the Pew Hispanic Center, 39% of surveyed Latino immigrants listed themselves as having legal status to opening bank accounts. This enables cash transfers through private money centers such as Western Union and Money Gram.
- HOWEVER, banks including Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank began accepting matriculas, which are photographed identity cards for Mexicans living in the US.
- Matriculas are obtainable by any legal or illegal Mexican. Matriculas are widely obtainable through Mexican consulates across the USA.
- To date, around 2.5 million matriculas have been issued, and the number is growing.
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