EDS To Support E-Mortgage Service Provider

EDS said Wednesday that it has won a 10-year deal to provide a range of IT support services to Merscorp, an operator of an electronic registration system for the mortgage industry.

Under the deal, EDS will provide Merscorp with infrastructure support, call-center services, and maintenance and support services for Merscorp's MERS System, an electronic system on which about 60% of all mortgages originating in the United States are registered. Merscorp claims the system allows lenders to save an average of $22 per loan by reducing paperwork.

The contract extends for another 10 years an existing deal between EDS and Merscorp that was signed in 1996. An EDS spokesman declined to state the value of the extension. The contract extension wasn't contested by other outsourcers, the spokesman said.

As part of the arrangement, EDS will provide CRM services to more than 25,000 MERS end users through call-center staff located in offshore facilities. EDS will also provide Merscorp with physical mail handling services related to process serving generated by mortgage registrations.