FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Thank you. Thank you, Barbara for hosting this event. Thank you, Ambassador Bremer for your leadership, friendship, and support. Thank you, José for joining us today and for your leadership at the Inter-American Development Bank. Thank you, Fernando and Michael for showing us your financial center, your employees, and letting us use your services to demonstrate something very important.

Today I sent $200 to my aunt in Mexico. I paid $10 to do this, plus an exchange-rate conversion fee of 3.5%. Of the $200 I sent, my aunt in Mexico will receive $193.

I was pleased to do this because I love my aunt and I’m glad I had the chance to share some of my money with my aunt.

But I’m also pleased because this is a very important transaction. It happens tens of thousands of times a day in the United States. Last year, over $9.3 billion was sent to Mexico by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States. Average fees, however, are about 20%. That means that of the $9.3 billion dollars sent to Mexico last year, $1.86 billion was eaten up in fees.

Last September, President Bush and President Fox launched the U.S./Mexico Partnership for Prosperity. The Partnership seeks to leverage private sector resources to promote development in the parts of Mexico where growth has lagged and fueled migration.

One of the things that we are working on in the Partnership for Prosperity is to lower the cost of sending money to Mexico. We want to do this by promoting competition. More competition will result in lower costs to consumers. If we can cut the fees in half – from 20% to 10% -- we can increase the amount of money that ultimately gets to Mexico by as much as $930 million dollars. That’s a lot of money.

That’s a lot of money, especially, when you think of it in human terms. 20% of $200 is $40. If we can cut that fee in half, though competition, innovation, and the use financial institutions like banks and credit unions, we’ll save consumers $20. $20 is a lot of money. It can mean a pair of shoes or a new dress. It can put meat into tortillas instead of just beans. And when you add it up it means almost $1 billion more into the pockets of Mexicans who need it most.

Already, we are seeing progress. Since the Partnership was launched in February, we have seen competitive remittance products being offered by a number of financial institutions including banks and credit unions. I appreciate the U.S./Mexico Chamber of Commerce’s decision to host this event and to celebrate these accomplishments. I look forward to seeing more competition and even lower costs in the future.

Thank you.