The Hindu : Business : String to expand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007
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Business

Business

String to expand

Staff Correspondent

CHENNAI: The mortgage process outsourcing company, String Real Estate Information Services, has decided to expand its Chennai operation and set up two new centres in Tier-II cities such as Madurai and Tiruchi.

The company planned to employee nearly 1,100 people by March-end.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Prashant Kothari, String’s Chief Executive Officer and founder, said the total value of all back-office and transaction activities annually was over $100 billion, of which at least $10 billion could be done offshore. Mr. Kothari said the Amercian mortgage industry was the largest in the world.

Mortgage loans

The value of residential mortgage loans outstanding in the U.S. was $8 trillion (from 65 million homes in the U.S.) and $5 trillion for commercial properties.

The total of $13 trillion was larger than the mortgage markets of all other countries put together. He said mortgage lenders who were not offshoring so far (because of fear of a backlash or other reasons) realised that their survival depended on tighter underwriting standards and lower costs.

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