AS MEXICAN MIGRANTS PROSPER, U.S. BANKS COME CALLING
By Brian Winter
REUTERS

CHICAGO – When Jose Luis Reynoso decided to turn his family's taco stand in Mexico into an upmarket clothing store, he needed the kind of money that can only be earned in the United States.

So off he went to Chicago where he got a job as a caterer and now wires home $800 a month that his wife, Micaela, uses to buy glittering belts and high-heeled shoes to sell at their new shop.

Reynoso is the kind of client craved these days by U.S. banks, who are overhauling their business to cater to a growing wave of middle-class Mexican migrants.

"Banks finally seem to have realized that Mexicans have more money these days," said Reynoso at a burrito stand on Chicago's North Side. "You can really see them competing for our business."

Indeed, banks are now trying to muscle in on the lucrative remittances market of money transfers that Hispanics send home to their families. Many are also offering new financial services ranging from Spanish-language tax advising to unprecedented cross-border mortgages.

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