In this episode of The Center for USA Lending’s The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, we’re joined by Victoria Collin, Acting 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.