The Lending Brief Podcast

In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Victoria Collin, Deputy Administrator of USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service, for a look at one of the most ambitious modernization efforts in federal lending. Victoria brings a rare vantage point, from standing up Treasury's emergency rental assistance program during the pandemic, to years at OMB overseeing cross-government financial management policy, to now running an agency that serves everyone from blueberry farmers to bio-fuel startups across rural America.

She makes the case that USDA Rural Development, which is going straight from paper-based processes to a fully modern end-to-end loan system, may end up leapfrogging agencies that have spent years modernizing legacy tech. She also gets candid about the rising delinquency rates in USDA's guaranteed loan programs, the importance of lender integrity, and why putting the customer first (not preserving how things have always been done) is the only mindset that makes modernization work.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Sarah Cunningham, partner at Summit Consulting and founder of its financial management practice, and Shelley Metzenbaum, founding president of the Volcker Alliance and director of the Better Project, for a conversation about the question federal credit has never fully answered: are these programs actually doing what they were designed to do?

Both are co-authoring a chapter on credit program performance for a forthcoming book on federal lending, and they bring a sharp, practitioner's eye to why measuring loan volume and default rates is necessary but nowhere near sufficient. They walk through what a genuine performance framework looks like — from tracking borrower characteristics and intermediary performance to connecting financial data with mission outcomes — and make the case that the $5 trillion federal lending portfolio may be one of the most underutilized early warning systems for economic stress in the country. Plus, Doug previews the Federal Credit Lab's November 9th launch as a critical first step toward making that vision a reality.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Anthony Curcio, founder of Summit Consulting and a 20-year veteran of federal credit policy, for a practitioner's guide to what it takes to stand up a new federal loan program. Drawing on his time at OMB and decades advising agencies across the credit spectrum, Anthony makes the case that we're living through a golden age of new credit programs, and that the stakes for getting program design right have never been higher.

He walks through the step-by-step playbook: defining your credit product before anything else, knowing how to engage OMB without ignoring them or showing up empty-handed, getting your back-office accounting ready before you cut the ribbon, and understanding why direct loans require extra discipline precisely because they're so powerful. 

He also offers a provocative idea:

The $5 trillion federal lending portfolio may be one of the best early warning systems for economic stress that no one is fully using yet.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we turn the mic inward. Doug Criscitello is joined by Center teammates Jay Hurt and Kate Aaby for a progress report on what the Center has been building, and what's coming next. From the launch of its first quarterly forum on student lending to a Capitol Hill briefing on the Federal Loan Systems Modernization Act, the Center has hit its stride in its first full year of operation. We've got a great team on our hands here at the Center, and we're excited to see what the future brings!

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Joanna Mikulski, founder of Mikulski Strategies and former policy advisor at the Biden White House Domestic Policy Council, for a conversation that bridges the worlds of federal credit, workforce development, and economic policy. Drawing on her time at OMB, the White House, and years working in international development, Joanna brings a rare ground-level perspective on what happens when well-intentioned federal programs collide with the realities facing states, localities, and the people they serve.

She makes the case that federal student loans — at over $85 billion a year — are the most consequential workforce financing tool the government has, gives that system a frank C grade, and explains why the fragmentation of credit, grant, and workforce programs at the federal level creates compounding problems on the ground. She also weighs in on the urgent need to onshore pharmaceutical manufacturing, the promise of lending.gov as a central portal for federal credit programs, and why good policy outcomes require both the right technology and human navigators to make it all work.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Roman Iwachiw, founder of FI Consulting and a 25-year veteran of federal credit analytics, for a candid look at how the government's approach to managing its $5 trillion lending portfolio has evolved, and where it still falls short. Starting from the early days of minimal FCRA compliance, Roman traces the arc from building basic subsidy models just to get by, to sophisticated portfolio analytics that can identify risk drivers, set better fees, and inform program strategy.

He also takes stock of where the work is unfinished: breaking down silos between CFO shops and program offices, measuring social outcomes alongside financial risk, and confronting the patchwork of aging technology that makes modernization so difficult. Plus, Roman previews an exciting new research initiative with the Center to benchmark portfolio analytics maturity across federal agencies, with the explicit goal of producing something agencies will actually use.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Owen Barwell, five-time CFO of multiple federal agencies including the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for a wide-ranging conversation on the role of federal lending in financing what private capital won't touch. Drawing on his experience deploying $30 billion in renewable energy loans during the Recovery Act, Owen makes the case for why government lending is essential to de-risking emerging technologies like small modular reactors until private markets are ready to step in.

He also pulls no punches on the state of federal lending infrastructure, drawing a direct parallel to where federal financial management was before the CFO Act of 1990, and arguing that data standardization, systems consolidation, and a common language across agencies are prerequisites before any real modernization can take hold.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Liz Kamins, a 25-year veteran of housing finance and former senior leader at Fannie Mae, for a global tour of mortgage market innovation. From teaching primary market lending fundamentals in Moscow to advising Mexico's INFONAVIT on securitization, Liz spent years bringing lessons from the US housing finance system to governments and institutions around the world, and bringing international insights back home.

She breaks down how countries like Germany, the UK, and Australia are leapfrogging the US in areas like blockchain-based securities issuance and AI-driven credit assessment, why the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remains uniquely American, and what it would take for Fannie Mae and FHFA to modernize at scale without breaking what already works.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Jay Hurt, former CFO of the Office of Federal Student Aid and a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Education, for a candid look at one of the federal government's most complex and politically charged credit programs. From a $37 billion profit in 2015 to a $493 billion liability by 2024, Jay unpacks how administrative actions — not just legislation — drove a half-trillion-dollar swing in portfolio value, and what that rollercoaster means for American taxpayers.

He also breaks down the coming waves of student loan defaults, what the collapse of the SAVE plan means for the 8.8 million borrowers currently in forbearance, and why the new Education-Treasury partnership to restart collections may be a critical turning point for the portfolio's long-term health.

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In this episode of The Center for USA Lending's The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we're joined by Jeffrey Little, former senior executive at the Federal Housing Administration and current Deputy Director of the National Leased Housing Association, for a behind-the-scenes look at the federal government’s largest housing credit program. From navigating the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to managing a $1.6 trillion insurance portfolio, Jeff explains how FHA balances mission-driven lending with real-world credit risk.

He also dives into the biggest challenges facing the agency today, including chronic underinvestment in technology, the constraints of congressional appropriations, and why modernizing federal credit systems is harder than it looks. Plus, Jeff shares his perspective on the growing bipartisan push to increase housing supply, the barriers facing multifamily finance, and what it will take for federal programs to keep pace with market demands.

Want more from the Lending Brief? Check out our Newsletter.