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Finance
The world leader in courier money transfers, Western
Union, has an exclusively authorized agent in Central
America called AirPak, which is also number 1 on the
Salvadoran “Top of Mind”.
The money transfer company has an extensive
network in the world with 350,000 offices, while
the country works with nine Airpak agencies and
45 of its own local branches. It is very important to
emphasize the full cooperation of Western Union
with the Attorney General of the State to ensure
the fairness and transparency of the funds sent and
received through Western Union.
92% of transfers received in El Salvador come from
the United States and 2% from Italy. Western Union
branches receive an average of between USD$190-
210 monthly per remittances from over 2.5 million
Salvadorans that live abroad.
The company is diversifying its product portfolio
through electronic payments via the Internet or cell
phone, and short-term, lump-sum payments to be
closer to customers.
One of the main focuses of Western Union is to help
Salvadoran immigrants with programs of human
interest and above all, focusing on education. For a
decade it has been collaborating with the creation
of schools, potable water distribution programs and
helping disadvantaged countries in the event of
disasters such as the damages caused by tropical
storm Ida.
Western Union has created over 35 mobile branches
in the United States to be closer to Salvadorans.
Currently, the company is reviewing and evaluating
those services offered to the public and has
implemented the program called: “your remittance
lasts longer”, with which added value is given to
the remittance. Negotiations have been made for
discounts and promotions with fast food restaurants,
drugstores and other products of basic need.
“Western Union has helped Salvadorans for the last
13 years. We not only have to look at numbers that
come in but also numbers that help, which is one
of the principal successes of our company. In our
country, there are many businessmen that do this.”
Alberto Parker, General Manager
COMEDICA – ASOCIACIÓN COOPERATIVA DE
AHORRO Y CRÉDITO DEL COLEGIO MÉDICO
DE EL SALVADOR – (SAVINGS AND LOAN
COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION OF THE MEDICAL
SCHOOL OF EL SALVADOR)
Dr. Mauricio Ventura Centeno
President
Intersección Alameda Juan Pablo II y Blvd.
Constitución, San Salvador
Tel: (+503) 2209 6800
Fax: (+503) 2209 6822
franscisco.cornejo@comedica.com.sv
www.comedica.com.sv
Activity: Savings & Loan Cooperative
Date of creation: 1970
Employees: 180
With over 40 years of history in El Salvador,
COMEDICA is a pioneer institution in the
cooperative history of El Salvador. Comedica is a
financial institution dedicated to providng services
and financial products to its members among which
are savings accounts, mortgage and personal debt
credit lines. It also offers MasterCard credit cards.
Since it is a savings cooperative of the medical
school, its 1400 members must be medical doctors
(55%) and first degree family members (45%).
Since its creation it has grown year after year.
2009 was a difficult year for all financial institutions.
Nevertheless, Comedica was able to grow 10%
reaching $USD 140 million in assets and $USD400
million in loans.
After many years pursuing this objective, in 2009 it
opened its luxurious new administrative headquarters
where they centralized the 22 departments in the
cooperative, among which are management, credit
cards, auditing, accounting, customer service and
marketing.
To develop its programs, it has many alliances
with banks such as Banco Centroamericano de
Integración Económica (BCIE), and the Banco
Multisectorial de Inversión (BMI), besides being
a member of international banking cooperative
associations and being in contact with IDB and
Spanish savings and loans banks to launch projects
like the Ethics Bank and the future creation of their
own insurance company.
“COMEDICA invites investors and Salvadoran
doctors living abroad to think about their country,
that is an excellent area in which to carry out