Sarma was founded in 1907 as the "San Antonio Retail Merchants Association" covering central and south Texas (Austin to the border region). Prior to that time, many towns were small enough that only one lender was available for each borrower to use. The lender was able to track information for the borrower without using an outside party. When people began moving around to different cities and citi
es grew to encompass multiple lenders, credit bureaus were born. There was a need for companies to track personal financial information more efficiently. Why was this needed? The main reason was to prevent a person from defaulting on a number of loans in one area then receiving a clean slate when they moved to another. Initially these were "merchants associations." Key retailers would gather the information together and communicate with one another regarding borrowers. Sarma was one of these associations. When the information grew, the associations had to become a separate entity, and thus regional credit bureaus were born. Eventually three main credit bureaus started acquiring the regional bureaus to create national databases. The three primary credit bureaus today are: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. These are not government entities. They are private corporations that use information available on your financial history to compile credit reports. These reports can be requested by individuals and businesses who have access to your personal information and have "permissible purpose" to access it. This means they have a legitimate need for the information that falls in certain categories (i.e. employment, financing, collections, etc.) Credit reports are used by lenders, landlords, collection agencies and employers to name a few. Sarma partnered with TransUnion in 2000 to become a sales agent in the same region it was founded. Although Sarma is the sole sales partner for this region, it no longer maintains the credit data associated with it. Sarma maintains long-standing relationships with financial Institutions, auto dealers and retailers. As a simbiotic business, our third party debt collection division was established in the 1950's and has been one of the primary collection agencies serving not only Texas, but nationwide and is a primary resource for many large financial institutions, medical facilities and other entities to maintain profitability. The residential mortgage credit reporting business unit has been providing mortgage reports to the lending community in Texas for over 25 years and continues to look for expansion opportunities nationwide. This division is one of the fastest growing and strongest in the Sarma family. Sarma also has 20 years of experience in tenant and employment screening, offering many resources for drug screening, criminal data and other tangent services. In 2003 Sarma added business credit reporting services through Experian Business Reports. This key business model allows businesses to screen the pay history and other key factors in their vendors and business partners prior to engaging in a partnership.
