Bill Webner on Why Federal Lending Needs a Single, Modern Platform (Repost)

In this reposted episode of The Center for USA Lending’s The Lending Brief, sponsored by Allocore, Bill Webner, CEO of Allocore, joins the podcast to break down why federal lending remains one of government’s most mission-critical—but technologically neglected—functions, and what it will take to modernize it at scale.

Drawing on his career spanning Freddie Mac, Booz Allen, Capgemini, and now Allocore, Webner explains how legacy, fragmented loan systems slow disbursements, increase fraud risk, and drive unnecessary operating costs across more than 175 federal credit programs. He contrasts the federal approach with modern commercial banking platforms, where speed and accountability are the norm, not the exception.

The conversation explores lessons from SBA’s pandemic-era lending programs, why emergency conditions often catalyze modernization, and how a sanctioned, shared lending platform could dramatically improve speed to disbursement, borrower experience, and fraud prevention across government. Webner also discusses why federal lending modernization is uniquely solvable, how it mirrors past shared-services efforts like payroll and travel, and why getting this right has an outsized impact on the broader economy.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

The United States government is one of the largest providers of credit in the world.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

We're talking five trillion dollars larger than the GDP of most nations in loans and loan guarantees that have been made through more than a hundred different programs.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

And with that huge portfolio comes fragmented systems, rising fraud risks, but a lot of well-intentioned people trying to hold it all together with digital duct tape.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

These programs are critically important to keep the nation's economy humming and to help Americans at critical junctures of their financial lives. Welcome to the lending brief. I'm Robert Shedd. And I'm Doug Chris Atello. We're going to talk with the people who actually know what's working, what needs to improve, and what will it take to bring federal lending into the 21st century?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

So, Adam, uh it's not often we get to talk to the top dog, the big cheese. That's true. We have today with us Bill Webner, the CEO of Alicor, who is generously sponsoring this podcast. Bill, welcome.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Robert and Adam, how are you? It's uh equally an honor to talk to two big cheeses. So thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

So tell us before we get started into a deep dive in lending, how it is you came to Alicor.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Where should I begin? The, you know, so the the short story is that I my entire career has been in and around Washington. I grew up in Washington. I grew up in the IT group at Freddie Mac, and then spent a bunch of years at Booz Island, and then a bunch of years at Cap Gemini, you know, ultimately running the government business for them. And one of the things that, you know, so there's a couple of things that occurred to me. One is that you could see in the professional services world starting, you know, five years ago, before the pandemic, you could see the demand in the market changing even then from, you know, we don't want more of these 400-person contracts. This is the market saying this, the clients saying, you know, there's gotta be a better way. Of course, the commercial sector was sort of out in front on that. And uh, companies and and professional services firms were finding ways to build a business model around a commercial platform, a commercial technology, not just to modernize sort of the function itself that it's serving, but to modernize the whole business unit or the whole direction of the enterprise. So I started to see that as well in in the federal market with the types of clients I was talking to. And you could see that they were asking for something different. There had to be a big shift in the way that support and services were being brought to the market. You know, I don't think anybody would have predicted that it would have shifted, you know, behind the um the concept of the doge. Nobody could have predicted that. But effectively that's that's sort of what everybody was sensing. So I looked at my experience sort of in the public-private world of Freddie Mac and then in the services world of Blues Island and Capgemini, and I wanted to earn some badges around this commercial product concept. Didn't really know what specifically I was looking for. I just knew that I had a lot of learning to do, you know, being predominantly a services leader. I knew I had a lot of learning to do, and I wanted to get ahead of this market shift. And then just, you know, the way I think most things in life work, it's it's luck and timing. And I got to know the really good guys up at Enlightenment Capital. And they had just made an investment in this company at the time called Summit, and uh, now rebranded, of course, as Alicor. And they were asking me if I if that was something I'd be interested in in helping out with. And I instantly said yes, because of all the reasons I just outlined. The market shift. I had a background in lending or in the world of of credit from my days of Freddie Mac. And I still wanted to support the government in in some capacity. So when this opportunity popped up, it was um it was really fortunate uh and and really good timing. And I I I left at it.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

So, Bill, that's a good transition. Talk a little bit about Alicor and the growth you all have seen. This is a highly technical space. You all are really, really good at it. Talk about the growth and what maybe what some of the key things that you've seen that have helped you to move so quickly in the lending space.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

You know, one of the things that is that made Alicor, and you know, maybe maybe you'll put this in the podcast notes, but you know, our our core product is a cloud-based, end-to-end loan origination, loan management, loan disbursement, and loan servicing systems. So all on one platform. You know, one of the things that that drew me to this, and frankly, has been a really key part of our growth over the past year or so, is the fact that it's so mission-centric. Um, so this isn't some some periphery um piece of technology. You know, it's not the type of technology that you just sort of drive around the beltway selling licenses for. It is a core, core part of any banking operation.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

It's not a new shiny object that people choose. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And and and our heritage is actually, you know, we we honestly never really had the intention of getting into public sector. That's an interesting story in and of itself. The this model, the the whole cloud-based, very modern approach, one platform to managing the full life cycle of a loan, our heritage is in the commercial sector with community banks, regional banks, and credit unions. And it was um really through the pandemic when um Treasury asked SBA to help uh disperse the PPP money, the restaurant revitalization money, et cetera, that the weaknesses of these legacy lending systems was really brought to surface. And that was that was Alicor's big splash into the federal sector. So, you know, anybody who has spent time in this market will know that there are, you know, the transition from commercial to federal is really hard. A lot of commercial businesses think they can do that. And then the next hardest thing is once you do have one solid engagement in in the federal space, how do you, how do you do more? How do you how do you be more helpful to the public sector? So so to answer your question, Adam, part of what I think has helped us really accelerate here is that we take a mission-first approach. And by that I mean I think in Washington, there there is a pecking order to how how modernization um can be successful, how transformation journeys can be successful. And and it goes in this order. Obviously, government first, client first, then your company, and then yourself. And if you get any of that out of whack, if you put your company before the government, if you put yourself before your company, like none of those things work. But if you prioritize what you're doing and realize that in the public sector, there's a lot of what you're doing that is good government. It's good for the whole of government, it's good for the sector. If you understand that what you need to do is is sort of make those contributions because you see an opportunity for the government to do better, uh, then everybody wins. So to wrap all that up, Adam, it's a it's a mission-based approach. It's it's using our commercial heritage and our commercial mindset to move fast. And it's making sure that we're not just going in and saying, how can we win that contract at that agency, but how can we help the the lending sector overall for for for the federal market?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

This is like this is like Maslov's hierarchy of needs, according to Bill Webner. I love it. That's great. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

I mean, I think it it is, it's it's interesting because the the this sector, the, the, the lending programs in the federal government, in fact, I I've got a um an opinion piece coming out in in one of the trade magazines in a couple of weeks that where I talk about this neglected sector. And and as we go around and talk to folks on the Hill or at OMB or National Economic Council, and then of course to the clients themselves, the main reaction we get is the surprise they have that there is an alternative to what they're doing today. Like the the the banking world, for the bulk of the banking world, the bulk of the banking sector, um, it is not a tech forward mindset. You know, they they have other priorities. And I think the the federal lending programs are sort of sort of in that basket as well. And so these older systems that they're using, custom-built systems, really, I mean, it's really the the history of technology, you know, they've got they've grown so accustomed to to using their systems that that they're almost incredulous. When we go in and talk to them about the fact that you can have email and calendar in a, you know, in one application, they're like, no, yeah, they there's like there's uncertainty that you can do that. And so we show them sort of all the all the good work we did at SBA and continue to do, and then all the work we do in the commercial sector. And they're really, really energized by that because they they're just not accustomed to seeing any other any other model of doing business.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

So I want to back up a little bit your like three questions ahead, which is sort of what it's like working with you, just FYI. The the so we're trying to paint a picture of the the landscape of federal lending. And I dug, I you know, dug dipped my little toe into it when I was at OMB, a massive government-wide mix of programs managed all differently. You've talked about a single platform and that the programs are surprised that there's a better way. What what's the current state of play in managing loan programs from a technology standpoint?

SPEAKER_03 10:16

The uh it's not that different than what you would see with the government's state of affairs with travel systems or you know, previously, or maybe even still payroll systems or HR systems. There's all there's all first of all, 175 at least loan portfolios and lending programs in the federal government. So, you know, you can think of the the big dogs like you know, USDA, SBA, HUD, VA, but then it goes on and on and on. There's there's a a credit program for every part of the the economy and and for every type of citizen, whether you're a student, whether you're a veteran, whether you're whatever. What what we see on the commercial side is actually pretty similar to what we see in the federal side when it comes to the technology across those programs. You if if we were to all three, you know, get in a van and drive down to a lending program right now and walked into the to the computer room.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Which we've done to be clear.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Yeah. Well, it would it would be uh it could be a documentary. We could turn this podcast into a documentary.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Sounds like a sounds like a great Saturday. I mean.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

The um, you know, we would see if if you imagine the life of a loan sort of just moving along on a on a conveyor belt, we would see, on average, uh, 12, 15 different, mostly custom built, totally sort of out-of-date systems that support each station of the conveyor belt. And then, of course, with each system comes a team of federal employees that's that work in and around that function for that system. And then, of course, there's this cottage industry of of technology service providers that that sort of help duct tape that system together and then and then you know across the corresponding systems. So there's a lot of problems with that. And again, these are classical problems, but you know, it is it is certainly a you know a large amount of arguably wasteful spending to keep those systems alive, up and running. And, you know, a lot of what the messages are that are coming out of this administration are we don't have to be spending this much money. I mean, the the amount of you know, 80% of the addressable market is roughly OM spend on these IT systems. And of course, a lot of the leaders in the administration today are coming out of Silicon Valley or commercial product platform companies, and they understand that you can you can do things for far cheaper and far faster. As an example, in the commercial world that we serve, no client is going to sign a five-year contract to modernize their lending system. And this is the core, I mean, there's only a couple of things that that that part of the banking sector does. They take deposits and they make loans. This is like the most important thing they have. They're doing it in six, nine, maybe 12 months. Um, so so you'll see 12 to 15 systems supporting a very predictable loan lifecycle. And that leads to a lot of waste. The second thing you'll see, as you can imagine, is because those systems are so old, because there's a lot of air gaps in between this, um, and due to the nature of confidential or private information that that a borrower, whether that's a company or a you know, a citizen borrower, has to provide, it is a playground for fraudsters. It's an absolute playground. And so what we see, for example, when we when we modernize in these large programs with outdated systems, is first and foremost, we see a dramatic reduction in time for how long it takes to get a dollar out to a borrower. You know, with these older systems and older mindset around how to manage the the um advancement of a loan. And we're talking, you know, programs that are taking 120 days, 180 days, up to a year to get a dollar out the door. In our best case scenarios, we we can get that down to about 12 days. But in reality, the way that any modern technology works, you can do it in 12 seconds if you wanted to. Now, there are reasons why the government, you know, yeah, there are different reasons why it might take 10 or 12 days, but it is dramatic. So that's number one, speed to disbursement. And then number two is just the tremendous amount of fraud um that is blocked when you have a proper, you know, modern fraud framework as part of the loan origination system.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

So let's talk a little bit more about that specifically. You all have done a lot of work at SBA, some pretty fantastic work with the paycheck protection program, with the restaurant revitalization fund. Talk a little bit about how you approached that, moving from this commercial beginnings of your the technology built and the company you built and moving it into government. What was your approach? How is it different to work for that at that type of mission-focused agency rather than a commercial entity that is more focused on the bottom line? Talk about that for a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

I think there's a couple things that are unique about this. One is the the passion for mission is the same. And I think that's what all three of us would agree is is most rewarding and such a unique privilege to be able to honor by by working for the government. I mean, the the the our science mission, you know, to be successful, we have to at least match or exceed that. And we see that on the commercial side too. I mean, these are community bankers and regional bankers and and credit unions. And so, you know, part of the reason that part of the world is not maybe so tech forward is because they are so immensely invested in in the individual, in the in the shop or the you know, the the small business that's that's opening up. So that's number one. Number two is um I, you know, one of the big differences was when you when you come into, I'd say, a legacy federal technology environment, you know, it's a jungle. And and we've all seen that, right? There's there's you know, more than just say the 12 or 15 systems used to manage a loan, there's the secondary and third systems, and it's you know, it's never ending. So part of what's interesting is that it was made a lot faster for us because we came in under emergency conditions. And that's something we think a lot about in the business. You know, there's there's you know, there's not a lot of credit program executives in their right mind who would just say, hey, next year, let's rip out all of our lending systems and put in a put in a new one, right? So, so you know, no, no, nobody should should should do that. You know. So instead, you you have to look, you know, and I think it's what's so intriguing about these credit programs in general. They are so closely tied to the economy and and and driving individual and and corporate benefit that you really want to closely follow that. And so in that case, it was you know an unpredictable global pandemic. But when you look at other things, say like the challenges that maybe the soybean farmers are going through with some economic crisis now, or an administration's priority around defense tech and and you know, accelerating that part of the economy, or or you know, the White House's focus on you know closing the gap on our shipbuilding capabilities. You know, so really you have to start to closely monitor what are the economic conditions that are a priority for a given administration, and then use that as a way to say, listen, you've got to get this money out to the farmers quickly. They cannot wait however long they're expected to or that they've been conditioned to wait. Let's get in there and make this go faster, just like you know, we did in a global pandemic or or whatever. So, so part of it is I think if if it was just a sunny day and somebody said, let's let's go modernize our lending systems, I think it's a hard thing to do without a mandate, which leads me to my last point, which is you know, we are looking at what's right for the government in modernizing this, the, the tech portion of this sector. And by that I mean, you know, it's not a terrifically great business model for Alicor to go door to door to all these lending programs, right? It's just not a, it's it's it's not an effective way to run a business. But more importantly, in that in that hierarchy of how priorities work in in Washington, it's not the right answer for the government either. Um, the right answer for the government is to take all of those 175 portfolios and programs and identify a sanctioned landing zone, if you will, meaning a commercial piece of technology that all those programs can drive towards and jettison their legacy technology, which is wasteful, which is full of fraud, which is all the things we just mentioned. And so a lot of the time that we spend, you know, in the market is working with the higher levels of government to help them see this, you know, because it's the same recognition that the specific program executive has, which is they didn't think at the highest levels of government that there was an alternative to doing this any other way. So knowing that you can do that, it begins to follow the model of HR consolidation, travel consolidation, et cetera, but has a bigger bang in in our minds at least, because of that direct connection out to the economy.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

So I've seen you make this pitch, and and I've hear you heard you say it a little bit, but tell us more about the reaction you're getting to advancing the idea that the ecosystem of lending programs ought to be adopting a better way.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

You know, of all the sort of different initiatives that that go on in this market, all the different transformation, modernization types of journeys that that I've been connected to and that I know you guys have been connected to, this is remarkably eerily, you know, frictionless. It it is, you know, everywhere we go, and again, there's there's no end to the number of people and organizations, both at the top levels of government, the clients themselves, but then the ag banking sector or industry groups or whatever. There's a there's a whole ecosystem of folks that you have to go talk to. Every single one of them instantly understands the strategic impact or the strategic value of this notion of let's drive all of our lending programs through a single platform. They totally get it because of the things we mentioned. Let's let's get the dollars out faster, let's be more accountable for who they're going to, let's make sure Adam is who he says he is, but mostly because it's solvable. And I think that's a really interesting way to look at a lot of what all of us do as we try to support the government is there's a lot of great ideas, but they're hard to put into action. And here we've got something that, you know, one piece of technology in this case, and by the way, we have competitors, you know, so there's there's other other folks out there that that could do this, but just the notion of of driving this towards one platform and and letting people um you know unburden them from you know the costs and and the the maintenance of of what they're what they're running today, it's it's so well received. Um and it just kind of it's kind of a no brainer for the folks we've we've been meeting with, which again really spans across town from the hill, you know, over to GSA to you know everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Well, this is great. I'm really excited to watch where the where this lands, how this pans out. Alicor's lucky to have you at the helm, but We're even luckier to have you on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Well, the honor is all of ours. We're all equally honored to be with each other. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Well, great. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

All right. Cheers.