U.S. Banks Closing Mexicans' Accounts Sandra Dibble - The San Diego Union-Tribune
go to original November 10, 2014

TIJUANA — One of the oldest and largest businesses in Baja California, the Calimax supermarket chain got some unpleasant news last month: The company’s U.S. bank no longer wants its business.

This presents a problem for Calimax, where many customers pay in dollars and the products on the shelves often have been imported from the United States. The family-owned company is one of a growing number of Tijuana businesses that face the closure of their U.S. accounts as banks come under pressure to adopt stricter anti-money-laundering measures.

“They told us to come and pick up our money,” said Federico Díaz, chief financial officer for Calimax, which has 109 stores in Baja California and Sonora, with some 6,600 employees.

Word of these account cancellations has spread alarm in Tijuana’s business community. Dollars have long been a common currency here, used to pay for everything from rents to medical services to restaurant tabs. Rare is the business in Tijuana that refuses dollars.

...The U.S. account cancellations have put some Tijuana businesses in a bind, as dollar deposits in Mexican banks were restricted in 2010, and until recently have been limited to $14,000 per month for businesses and $7,000 for individuals. Though President Enrique Peña Nieto announced the lifting of the restrictions in September, the new policy apparently has yet to take effect at the border.

While not everyone has been touched by the measure, the closures by several major U.S. banks have been happening for the past two or three years, and appear to be growing.

Read the whole story at The San Diego Union-Tribune

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