Wells Fargo to unveil service for wiring money to Mexico

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Posted 8:12AM on Tuesday, January 8, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO - Wells Fargo & Co. is poised to introduce a discount service for wiring money to Mexico, the latest move in the banking giant's courtship of the steadily growing Hispanic population in the United States. The new service will charge a $10 flat fee for wiring as much as $1,000 to Mexico. The price undercuts the rates charged by the dominant financial wire services, Western Union and Moneygram. The market leaders collect a $15 fee on a comparable wire transfer of up to $300 and charge as much as $50 for sending $1,000 to Mexico. In some cases, Moneygram charges a flat fee of $15 for any amount. Mexicans living in the United States wire an estimated $8 billion annually to friends and relatives back home. "It's an extremely attractive market," said Bob Byrne, Wells' director of divergent services. "We want to stay close to it by tailoring products that fit the market's needs." Wells, the nation's fifth-largest bank, intends to test its new wire service in a Phoenix, Ariz., branch and seven Texas branches under a pilot program that will begin by April. The San Francisco-based bank eventually plans to offer the wire transfer service -- operated as a joint venture with Grupo Financiero Bancomer SA, Mexico's second-largest bank -- in all 3,000 of its branches located in 23 states. Wells also has been heavily promoting another long-running program, called Intercuenta, that lets customers send money to Mexico through account transfers completed on the Internet or automated teller machines. Western Union is closely watching Wells' new wire service but has no immediate plans to change its prices, said spokesman Pete Ziverts.