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Fidelity National Financial India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based title insurance firm Fidelity National Financial, is planning to open its second facility in the country in Bangalore.
In simple terms, title insurance is cover against financial loss from defects in property titles and invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage liens.
The company, which already has a facility in India, would set up one more centre to accommodate over 1,200 professionals in the next six to eight months, Mr Sameer Dhanrajani, Country Head – India Fidelity National Financial India, told Business Line on the sidelines of Nasscom's India Leadership Forum 2011 here.
“At present, we have 900 employees on rolls. After the completion of proposed facility, we will ramp up our employee numbers to over 2,000,” Mr Sameer said.
Captive business
The operations of Fidelity in India are fully captive in nature and handle transactions of its parent company in the ,US which has a major share of title insurance business in the US.
“The total market for title insurance in the US (in terms of premium underwritten) is about $40 billion. Fidelity has 45 per cent share in the market,” claimed Mr Sameer.
In addition, Fidelity is also involved in specialty insurance business such as insurance of aircraft leases, among others.
As title insurance of properties is not allowed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Fidelity is working on some pilot programmes on digitisation of land records in some States as a precursor of title insurance in the days to come.
“At present, we are running pilots In Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat to digitise land records,” he said.
Title insurance biz
Fidelity hopes to be the front runner in title insurance business in India in view of its ‘expertise and vast exposure' to it in the US market.
A Bill to allow title insurance was ready to be tabled in Parliament. The industry was expecting it to be approved sometime during this year, Mr Sameer said.
“There is lot of scope in this segment in the domestic market as well. According to data available with us, one out of five residential properties and two out of six commercial establishments titles have some defects in the titles,” he said.
The Government had also allocated Rs 50,000 crore for digitisation of land records over next five years which would create right ambiance of title insurance business, he added.
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