Podcast: One-On-One With Gagan Sharma, CEO Of BSI Financial Services

The CEO of BSI Financial Services in Irving, Texas, says the key to success in business is to treat every day as a fresh start.

BSI Financial Services is working to lead the evolution of mortgage servicing for originators, investors, and homeowners using a fintech platform. And CEO Gagan Sharma said there isn't a dull moment.

"Sometimes that brings stress and challenge, but I think I enjoy the challenge, the intellectual challenge, the people challenge. Frankly, challenging myself to see, ‘Okay, what can I learn from yesterday? What did we do? What could we have done better?’ Individually, collectively, as a group, as a firm, as an industry, and apply that," Sharma said.

Sharma described the mentality as one similar to a professional athlete.

"I approach business almost with that approach that, ‘Hey, I'm an athlete. Maybe I played well yesterday, maybe I didn't. But either way, what am I going to do today?’ Even if I won the game yesterday, it doesn't matter because tomorrow is a new game. That is the approach, that's what gets me going," Sharma said.

Sharma recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Scott Kimbler to talk about BSI Financial Services and his vision for the company.

Sharma started by talking about how he came to be involved with the company.

“BSI was a company and a business plan that I was working on when I was doing my MBA at Wharton. This was my second entrepreneurial venture. I founded my first company in the late 90s. Built it, sold it. I actually founded that company in my first year of business school. I dropped out of school to build and run that business, and then I sold it. Then I went back to business school to finish my MBA," Sharma said.

"In my first company, half my business was working with mortgage companies. So, when I was looking to get back on the entrepreneurial path, mortgage was the industry that I felt was interesting. I've always had an interest in finance. BSI, as we started it, was a business plan to acquire and get into the mortgage servicing business. That was in late 2005, so almost 20 years ago."

Today, BSI Financial is one of the fastest-growing mortgage servicers across the industry and currently services nearly $50 billion in mortgages. 

"BSI has evolved from essentially a sub-service and a specialty servicer, into a broader mortgage platform where we have a servicing business. We have a capital markets business, we have a direct consumer lending business, and we have a technology business. Then we have a business providing ancillary services to some internal and external clients around title, title closing, default management activities, and such. The thing I would say connects all of these is we're typically serving either lenders who make loans or investors who buy or invest in loans,” Sharma said.  

Sharma said there are factors that make BSI stand out in the financial world.  

“I think we are creative problem solvers. That our clients are looking for a certain solution. Oftentimes, we'll solve their problem using technology. So, we think of ourselves as a FinTech platform where we use technology. Sometimes we build it. Some technology we buy may be available off the shelf. But for us, using technology to be creative problem solvers for our clients, that's what I would say really differentiates us from some of our peers in the marketplace," Sharma said.

Sharma has a vision of where he sees the company going.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about it. What is our vision? What's our purpose, almost, right? After a lot of thought, the way we would define it is we're really passionate about homeownership, but also, our role is in what we call fostering sustainable homeownership. We want homeownership where it is sustainable, whether that's as a servicer or a lender. We want to make sure that the borrower, the consumer, who is the customer who's in the home, we can make it into a sustainable home ownership experience for them," Sharma said.

To do that, company leaders ask how they can foster this through their different businesses and customer experiences.

"Today, we may be touching a quarter million families. Our goal is over the coming years, we believe we have an opportunity to significantly scale that up. So, we want to double our business and more because we think that with our combination of different businesses, we can provide a great value-added solution for all our customers. Whether they be our borrowers or whether they be a lender or other clients,” Sharma said.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, Sharma said interest rates will play a big factor in what happens in the housing market.

“I think the biggest thing that I focus on is rates, right? Where are mortgage rates? They went to seven and higher, but seem to be coming down a reasonable bit. I would say that interest rates are probably going to be one of the biggest drivers of what happens to housing," Sharma said.

#fintech #mortgageservicing #mortgagenews