EDS Brings New Approach to International Servicing with Westpac Deal.(Electronic Data Systems)(Westpac Banking)(Brief Article)

The way Larry Walker tells it, EDS (Electronic Data Systems) here has been changing the way the mortgage professionals throughout the world think about subservicing.

Mr. Walker, managing director in EDS's global financial industry group, told this publication that what his company does is "very close to what the United States would recognize as subservicing.

"But we kind of do it with a few twists and define it a little differently and with a little bit more complexity," he said.

Mr. Walker said EDS has been re-evaluating its global approach to subservicing ever since it acquired the Greensboro, N.C.-based Wendover Financial Services Corp. a few years ago.

"It was primarily a subservicing company and the first thing we did was banish that word from their vocabulary," he said. "(We) began to reinvent what subservicing is and move into sub-origination and some other things."

Mr. Walker said he believes that EDS's "primary reinvention" has been "sharing the database with the client and enabling the client to break up the processes that are actually outsourced."

"(A client) may have a rule, for example, around the processing of a short sale, ... if it's a loan in the Fannie Mae portfolio. Fannie Mae has a rule about that but the information about the value of the house that you need to make the decision isn't available. So that's when we begin to really look at does it make sense to outsource this to EDS?" Mr. Walker explained. ".... Up until it gets that seriously delinquent, ...