Remesas

Sending money back home? Just press "talk."

That's what Western Union, Radio Shack and the small wireless carrier Trumpet Mobile hope millions of Hispanic immigrants will do with a new service announced yesterday.

Though financial turmoil has put credit card, mortgage and auto markets at a standstill, the flow of money immigrants send overseas continues to increase.

In 2007, $65.5 billion in remittances were sent to Latin American and Caribbean nations, up 7 percent from the previous year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

That, combined with the fast-growing sales of cellphones among immigrants in the United States and developing countries, has caught the attention of Western Union, which offers wire transfer services and in 1861 set up the first transcontinental telegraph line in North America.