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Reuters reports that Bank of America plans by year end to eliminate its fees for some of its customers to transfer money to Mexico. To benefit, there's a requirement that customers open checking accounts with the bank.

"Our goal in eliminating fees is to help millions of customers send money for free quickly and easily to friends and family in Mexico," said Liam McGee, Bank of America's president of consumer and small business banking, in a statement.

Wendy Zellner writes in Business Week about Wal-Mart's activities in financial services.

Many community bankers are convinced the behemoth won't rest until it has obtained full banking powers. "It's not a question of if Wal-Mart is going to be a bank, it's a question of when," says D. Anthony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

First Data Corp. has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2004. The company reported earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 56 cents, an increase of 2 percent over the same quarter last year. Year over year revenue growth was 20 percent while expenses grew at 21 percent resulting in a growth in operating profit of 16 percent.

First Data has also announced that it will be providing processing services for the recently announced Wal-Mart Discover credit card which is being underwritten by GE Consumer Finance.

FDC seems to be using the new theme of "Making Life Easier" to describe its overall business.