#11 | Mara McNeill: How I Took a Bank From $1B to $6B in 4 Years

Mara McNeill took over Toyota's bank the month COVID shut the country down, as the fourth CEO in four years. She grew it from $1B to $6B.More on Mara McNeill and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/mara-mcneillShe breaks down how the growth actually happened rather than how it reads in a press release: the Mazda captive relationship that unlocked a new lending strategy, an SBA license secured fast enough to run Paycheck Protection Program loans for shut-in dealers, 465 loans that helped save roughly 40,000 dealer jobs, and why brokered certificates of deposit turned out to be stickier than regulators believed.From there the conversation turns to what boards missed at Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, why the problem was not capital requirements, what changes in expectations between a $1 billion bank and a $10 billion one, and how she sold a $6.9 billion student loan portfolio.She is a former Air Force captain who served at the Pentagon, with degrees from the Air Force Academy, Georgetown and Harvard, and senior roles at JPMorgan Chase and the US Treasury, where she worked the auto bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.Mara McNeill is the President of PayPal Bank. She previously ran Toyota Financial Savings Bank, growing it from $1 billion to $6 billion in four years, and held senior roles at JPMorgan Chase and the US Department of the Treasury. She is a former United States Air Force captain who served at the Pentagon.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Fourth CEO in four years, in March 202002:00 Scaling the bank from $1B to $6B05:10 The Mazda partnership that unlocked it08:30 PPP lending for shut-in dealers11:05 Why brokered CDs were stickier18:00 What boards missed at SVB27:10 A $1B bank against a $10B bank40:10 Selling a $6.9B student loan book48:10 Moral hazard and bailouts56:30 Michigan, and the Treasury auto bailoutNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectMara McNeill on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maramcneill/Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.