Newcomers.

Foreign workers abroad send home an estimated US$180 billion in the form of remittances--cash wire transfers sent home. Of that, $54 billion went just to Latin American countries, according to a recent Inter-American Development Bank study. In Spain alone there are 3 million immigrants, 60% of them from Latin America, so it's not hard to find a wire transfer company. Now Spanish bank BBVA wants a bigger slice of that market, launching Dinero Express.

Its goal is to service immigrants from the moment they arrive, from when they just want to send money home to five years later or more, when they are ready to take a mortgage. In addition to remittances, the bank offers credit lines, guarantees for renting an apartment, long-distance calling booths, mortgage loans, insurance, credit cards, a job bank, a courier service and a discount travel agency. The product, Cuentas Claras Internacional, allows remittances, a bank account, repatriation insurance and legal advice for a monthly fee of $4.

It's an aggressive bet, one that takes advantage of the fact that wire-transfer providers in Spain are prohibited from selling financial products. "Official estimates put the number of immigrants here by 2010 at 5.5 million," says Miguel Angel Munoz, president of Dinero Express. "The immigrant market we see as a very important opportunity for financial institutions." Dinero Express started in 2002 with 10 offices and now has 100, dedicated solely to serving immigrants in Spain.