Outsourcing Debt Collection

Sify.com reports debt collection is becoming another area of outsourcing moving to India. According to a news report, units of General Electric, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings and American Express are using their India-based staff to pursue credit card debt and mortgage payment by calling defaulters.

''Our cost of collection is 40 percent less than operators in the U S,'' Jerry Rao, chief executive of MphasiS, which has hundreds of debt-collection agents in Bangalore and Pune, told The Wall Street Journal. ''We can collect debts (American) firms didn't expect before.'' Outsourcing companies in such nations as the Philippines and Mexico (the latter mainly for U S -based Spanish speakers) are also entering debt-collection business, but India seems to have the largest and fastest-growing operations outside the United States.