As government regulators crack down on the financing of terrorists and drug traffickers, many big banks are abandoning the business of transferring money from the U.S. to other countries, moves that are expected to reverse years of declines in the cost of immigrants sending money home to their families, the New York Times reported today. While Mexico may be most affected — nearly half of the $51.1 billion in remittances sent from the U.S. in 2012 ended up in that country — the banks’ broad retreat over the last year is affecting other countries in Latin America and parts of Africa as well. The banks are being held accountable not only for the customers who directly use their money transfer services but also for their role in collecting remittances from money transmitting companies and wiring them abroad. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have scrapped low-cost services that allowed Mexican immigrants to send money to their families across the border. The Spanish bank BBVA is reportedly exploring the sale of its unit that wires money to Mexico and across Latin America. And in perhaps the deepest retrenchment by a bank, Citigroup’s Banamex USA unit has now closed many of its branches in Texas, California and Arizona that catered to Mexicans living in the U.S. and stopped most remittances to Mexico as it faces a federal investigation related to money laundering controls.
