Dave Lebryk on Crisis Payments, Fraud Prevention, and the Future of Federal Lending

In this episode of The Lending Brief (sponsored by Allocore), former Treasury Fiscal Assistant Secretary and Acting Deputy Secretary Dave Lebryk joins the show to reflect on a career at the center of federal financial management—from government-wide data modernization to delivering emergency payments at historic speed.

Drawing on his leadership during the DATA Act implementation and the rollout of pandemic economic impact payments, Lebryk discusses what government gets right in moments of crisis, why agile methods and cross-agency collaboration matter, and how trust, data quality, and execution are deeply intertwined. He explains how Treasury dramatically expanded fraud-prevention capabilities, why federally funded, state-administered programs remain a major opportunity area, and how better data aggregation can protect taxpayers without slowing delivery.

The conversation also explores where shared services and standardized platforms could most improve federal lending and grants, the role of the private sector in scaling fraud detection and identity verification, and what it will take to build seamless, end-to-end experiences for borrowers—without sacrificing oversight. Lebryk closes with reflections on the next generation of public servants and why technological fluency will be essential to the future of federal credit programs.

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