Workers send more funds home to Latin America in '06

GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 19 (Reuters) Migrant workers sent .3 billion home to their families in Latin America in 2006, more than any other region in the world and up 14 percent from the year before, an Inter-American Development Bank official said.

The money sent by millions of workers in the United States and Europe exceeds the combined total amount of foreign direct investment and foreign aid to the region, Donald Terry, head of the bank's investment fund, said on Sunday.

Remittances sent to Latin America are likely to increase by around 15 percent a year and could top 0 billion by 2010, Terry said at the bank's annual meeting in Guatemala.

Migrants typically send money in small amounts and sometimes through informal channels, making it difficult to track.

''We need to get these flows out of cash-to-cash and into account-to-account transfers,'' he said.

Latin America used to be the most costly place to send money, with around 15 percent going to wire transfer fees.

Those costs have fallen to around 5 percent over the last seven years and could go down to 3 percent over the next few years as more migrant workers open bank accounts, Terry said.

REUTERS SBA PM0446