Sarma is a long-established financial services company founded in 1907 that has evolved from its historical roots into a comprehensive B2B solutions provider for lenders, brokers, and collection agencies. The company positions itself as a legacy operation that has survived major economic and national challenges, with current leadership under CEO Bob Benavides.
Sarma's core service offerings include mortgage lender and broker services (software and tools to streamline loan operations), third-party debt collections, background screening for employment and tenant vetting, skip tracing services for locating consumers, and a consumer-facing collections payer portal. They also offer data system services to help businesses access consumer information for qualification and location purposes. The company integrates DocuSign e-signature capabilities and maintains a charitable foundation focused on community giving.
What distinguishes Sarma is its institutional longevity and multi-service approach targeting the lending and collections ecosystem rather than direct consumer credit products. The company emphasizes operational efficiency and cost reduction for mortgage lenders through proprietary tools, and positions debt collection as a strategic partnership rather than write-off mitigation. Their 1907 founding date and survival through multiple crises is leveraged as a trust marker.
However, the website reveals Sarma functions primarily as a B2B service provider, not a direct consumer lender or credit products company. While they operate a consumer collections payer portal, this is for consumers already in collections with third parties, not for primary loan origination. The current categorization as a mortgage lender is partially accurate but incomplete—Sarma is really a mortgage services provider and business solutions platform serving the financial services industry.
