Technology and consulting firm Wolters Kluwer will now offer on-site assistance to help institutions begin preparing for the Federal Reserve Board’s new Regulation Z requirements, going into effect in October. The changes will require institutions to comply with several Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) requirements tied to a new class of mortgages the FRB identifies as “higher-priced.” “The sooner lenders can prepare themselves for these new requirements the better,” says Kurt Sames, general manager of consumer compliance at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. “In light of the current financial crisis, they can be certain regulators will intensify their scrutiny of compliance with these changes and other fair and anti-predatory lending requirements.” Wolters Kluwer says its Compliance Management professionals can be deployed on-site at institutions to help them revise policies and establish a systematic process for checking mortgage applications against the FRB’s new higher-priced mortgage threshold. The company’s regulatory experts can then help institutions update loan processing procedures to meet the FRB’s higher-priced mortgage requirements — requirements such as verifying a borrower’s ability to pay, limiting prepayment penalties and establishing escrow accounts. Wolters Kluwer also announced Thursday that its Wiz Sentinel anti-predatory lending software will begin testing mortgages against the FRB’s new higher-priced mortgage threshold when the Regulation Z revisions go into effect. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Wiz Sentinel software belongs to the company’s line of PCi compliance analytics solutions and can help institutions analyze loans to determine potential anti-predatory lending violations either in real-time at the point of sale or in batches for post-closing audits. Write to Kelly Curran at [email protected].