Families across frontiers Now 47, José Antonio Reyes has worked for years as a builder in his native El Salvador and has never once thought about opening a bank account.
On the face of it, he and his wife Edith Portales seem like some of the most unlikely people to have their lives transformed by innovations in trans-national finance. The couple live in a cramped and airless house in Soyapango, near the country’s capital, San Salvador, which they share with their son Fernando and their nephew Gerardo Alfaro’s three children. They are dependent on the $600 (£299, €440) or so that Mr Alfaro sends them each month from the US.
