India in the middle of mortgage outsourcing

In a tough business environment, mortgage companies need to think outside the box and ally with outsourcing partners who can provide innovative solutions to leverage the full benefits of global sources.
With the latest Nasscomm report of ‘Mortgage outsourcing to reach $1.1 Billion by 2010 ‘ making Indian shops jump in joy. As with growing competencies within the operations of BPO’s the focus has already gone a paradigm shift from being a non-core service provider to Critical services provider.
There is rise of different process outsourcing in Mortgage domain, which is a luring opportunity for the players across the globe to gear up and grab a pie of this cash rich opportunity. The mortgage lenders in USA, UK and other Developed countries already depend on services of software which is essential mortgage technology starting with Loan origination systems, Mortgage banking solutions, to workflow management systems etc. The need is not just stops there with margins in loans dwindling the cost reduction pressure have triggered outsourcing in big level.

Mortgage outsourcing trends is not just for conventional processes of loan origination, Document preparation, underwriting, collections and settlements but there are discrete processes like title preparation, title searches, flood certifications 1003 data entry with processing, Settlement, HUD preparation, escrow management, lien management and many more
On the parallel side there are trends of virtual loan officers fast catching up, here the employees does the lead generation and completes the 1003 form. The US office conducts the credit checks and offshore professional competes the form and then on they also do the underwriting process and finally sent to US office for final approval.

To support the trend of outsourcing it is believed that when the operating models will mature and gain acceptance, it will have the capacity to help mortgage lenders reduce their costs and improve customer service in better way. This observation can be derived from the contemporary process efficiencies attained by many players such as – Genpact, WNS, IBM – Daksh working in India who are not only writing the rules of the game but also standardizing the models for others to follow. The mortgage lenders may also leverage offshore resources to find new customers and process a major portion of the loans in a low-cost environment.


New horizons…
MISMO the MBA (Mortgage Banking Association) body is pushing hard for the wide spread adoption of Electronic mortgage which we call eMortgage. The great revolution is on the verge that will trigger deeper impacts to the biggest players in the Industry. The rules are going to be same; same scrutiny of documents, same scrutiny of signature, same credit checks and credit score assessment but the operation and approach of these activities will change for the good.
Operations in eMortgage broadly divided as Pre closing, Closing, Post closing, Recording and servicing and the vast opportunity of – smart document tracking, e Packaging, Compliance checking, Underwriting, eVaulting and other closing services making the whole picture of process driven ecosystem; With the gaining adoption of eMortgage these processes are going to be a cause of concern they will make or break the businesses. MISMO has already laid standards to run the processes but the operations of these processes observing synergy is the trick to conquer.
Outsourcing of consulting services are also the upcoming opportunity that is coming to hit the offshore centers the transformation of outsourcing for routine and mundane task is going to pave way for knowledge driven expertise run by KPO’s. The services in demand are Disaster Management, eSecurity, BPM, Electronic quality control, Compliance standards adoption and certification, Staff training and many more
The Landscape
There are many players already servicing to the mortgage outsourcing in India with Tier I comprising of IBM, Genpact, Equinox, WNS, Infosys BPO etc. and Tier II – I Gate. Nirvana, e4e, Global Indecomm, I-seva, Vision net; what is observed is many players are acquiring and expanding their expertise to meet the demand of the Mortgage Industry outsourcing. In the current scenario the bigger players are looking for higher margin business opportunities which they foresee in the form of eMortgage process outsourcing and consulting services but Industry is underdeveloped for such leap of operations, in coming times the Conventional operating processes are expected to bring a new wave in BPO’s. There is going to be surge of investments, with space for every one from large player to midsize and smaller outfits. All can serve this new opportunity of BPO. Bigger lenders will outsource to players who have relevant competencies, expertise and certification this is what triggering the buying spree which has happened in form of Genpact buying moneyline lending services, WNS acquired Arizona based Tucson, I flex buying equinox, Office tiger buying mortgage ramp. The trend visible is, almost all the players are either adding up newer services, Ramping up the operations, increasing servicing lines or building competencies, getting certification, buying licenses otherwise partnering with US based players. It is evident that time to market is everything to grab the opportunity