Live wires: Latin Americans living in Spain drive a big business in sending money home.(REMITTANCES)

An estimated 8% to 10% of Spain's current population of 44 million are immigrants, legal or illegal. Nearly half of those are Latin Americans, mainly Ecuadorans and Colombians. Cultural connections and a shared language have turned the European country into an attraction for Latin Americans on the move, each of them arriving looking for a better life, yet leaving home with the same dream: Crossing the Atlantic will mean making enough money to send home a little each month, to help family that will stay in Latin America.

Living in Spain since 1992, Nicaraguan migrant Melida Martinez sends home each month between US$370 and $500 through an agent called UniGiro. There she pays a fixed commission of $6.20 for each remittance of less than $3,700. The decision to go to Spain wasn't an easy one, for the typical reason--her family is far away. "When I left for Madrid, I left behind three daughters," says Martinez. "One of them, who studied international relations, hasn't been able to find a job." The money she sends home pays the bills, as well as the college tuition of the youngest girl. "This money is very important. It pays the water, the light, the groceries. It pays everything," Martinez says.

The total of all Latin America-bound remittances from Spain is $2.25 billion, according to Spain's Central Bank, Banco de Espana. A study by the nonprofit Fundacion de las Caja de Ahorros shows that the total sent abroad by foreigners in Spain rose a surprising 560% during the past seven years. In 2005, the world total for remittances sent by Latin Americans hit $53.6 billion, a rise of 17% from the previous year. Money sent from the United States accounts for 75% of that figure, but total remittances from Spain grows every year.

Not surprisingly, most of the growth has tracked along with Spain's swelling foreign population. "Altruism is what's driving the phenomenon," says Enrique Alberola, head of the Latin American economies unit of the Banco de Espana. "More than half of the money sent by migrants living in Spain goes to Latin American destinations."

The more than 50 remittance agencies in Spain--Western Union and MoneyGram are the leaders--were the first to take advantage of the market. The big banks, eager to attract migrant business, also entered the fray by way of various products developed just for that segment of the public. "The decision by the banks had a positive effect of generating competition and, as a result, commissions charged for remittances have been declining," says Alberola.

The Catalan bank La Caixa was one of the first. In 2002 it positioned itself in the Spanish market as a strong competitor to the remittance agencies, launching a creative initiative known as multichannel transfers that allow a customer to send money not only via the bank itself by also through ATMs (using a special envelope for remittances) and by text message from a cellular phone.

Remittances by cellphone was introduced to the bank's customers last year, thanks to an agreement among various financial entities in the main countries of origin of Spain's foreign residents, among them Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic. The Latin American institutions taking part are Banco de Credito and Mibanco, in Peru; Caja Social and Bancolombia, ...