The Lending Brief Podcast

14 Episodes

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Do Federal Credit Programs Actually Work? The Case for Mission-Driven Performance Data

2026-09-0923:45

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 progr...

The Golden Age of Federal Credit: How to Build a Loan Program Right

2026-08-2626:04

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 des...

Building the Infrastructure for Federal Lending Reform: A Center for USA Lending Update

2026-08-1222:33

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 o...

From OMB to the Ground: Connecting Federal Credit to Workforce and Economic Development

2026-07-2920:58

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 w...

How Federal Credit Modeling Has Grown Up

2026-07-0918:54

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 an...

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