HAVANA, July 8 (Reuters) - The Western Union company on Thursday began operating a direct money transfer service to Cuba under U.S. embargo regulations that permit the sending of direct cash remittances to the communist-ruled island.
Nearly 30 outlets of the U.S. wire transfer firm opened for business across the Caribbean country in shops and gas stations belonging to the Cuban state hard currency corporation Cimex.
Cimex's financial services subsidiary, Fincimex S.A., is running the facility in Cuba for Western Union, which received authorisation from the U.S. government to provide the service.
Washington's 37-year-old economic embargo against Cuba generally prohibits most trade and financial transactions between the two countries.
But under special regulations aimed at easing the impact of the embargo on ordinary Cubans, residents in the United States can send a cash remittance of up to $300 every three months to family members in Cuba.
That facility was widened earlier this year to allow anyone in the United States, not just family members, to send money to Cubans on the island.
But although the new Western Union outlets in Havana were open and staffed by Cimex employees on Thursday, Cimex officials said they had received instructions from their superiors not to make statements to the press.
``We are not going to announce anything,'' one official at Cimex headquarters told Reuters. She declined to explain.
But a cashier at one of the booths confirmed the service was starting on Thursday, although few members of the public appeared aware of it. Money transfer forms marked ``Western Union. Money in Minutes'' were available.
Over the past few years, cash remittances to Cuba from abroad, previously delivered in clandestine fashion or through a complex network of intermediaries, have become a major source of hard currency income for the cash-strapped island.
Some analysts estimate the annual flow of cash remittances to Cuba from abroad at between $500 million and $1 billion.
That has helped to keep the Cuban economy afloat following the severe recession triggered by the collapse after 1990 of the island's trade and aid ties with the former Soviet bloc.
18:54 07-08-99
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