The declining fortunes of the consumer in the US, and increasingly the UK, are proving to be a boon for India’s outsourcing industry, with some leading operators gearing up to increase the size of their debt collection and recovery units.

Firstsource, an Indian business process outsourcing company that handles credit recovery for most of the top five US banks and half the top 10 credit card issuers, said it was increasing staff numbers to win business from growing credit card defaults in both national markets.