Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions leader on the role of technology as lenders embrace change
Steve Meirink cites critical factors for a purpose-driven digital transformation in Mortgage Professional America interview
Given that many financial institutions’ transformation list to adopt new technologies has grown in recent years, having a firm sense of the ultimate purpose behind that technology is critical to getting it right and embracing major change. That’s according to the head of Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions in a recently published interview exploring the mindset needed for technology teams to successfully develop—and implement—those same technologies to meet the complex challenges of financial services customers.
“They’re not just creating code… (or) different architectures. It’s linking it all the way to the actual impact that it has for our end customers,” explains Steve Meirink , Executive Vice President and General Manager for Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions, in a Mortgage Professional America feature, “Tech Must be Purpose-Built .” “It sounds like simple work, but I’ve seen a lot of organizations where you ask somebody what they’re working on and how that impacts their own community, and someone would say ‘I don’t really know.’ That’s been a major initiative for us—to further engage our entire technology organization to not only create great technology, but to know how it benefits others.”
Meirink notes that a big priority for Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions is to make sure that his tech team knows the technology they develop is not built in a vacuum.
“All of the products and applications that we provide to customers through technology enable financial services professionals to do their job—to assist small businesses and consumers to achieve a financial dream or goal,” Meirink says. “That is really important in terms of how we view our role in the marketplace.”
Purpose-built technology has led the way in many financial services arenas, he notes, from Wolters Kluwer helping lenders quickly access critical small business funding during the pandemic crisis, to the creation of digital assets “in all lending areas, including mortgage” that are fundamentally changing the lending industry for the better.
In the future, he believes that technological priorities and advances will focus more on identity. “It’s around knowing who you are doing business with and being able to have high confidence that you know [what] the identity is of that counterpart,” Meirink says. “That’s really what the mortgage industry is built on.”
Focusing exclusively on the mortgage and finance industry, Mortgage Professional America is part of international publishing group Key Media, providing the latest breaking news, cutting-edge opinion, and expert analysis affecting mortgage and finance professionals and their industries.
Steve Meirink oversees a growing business in Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions which, during 2020, helped U.S. lenders navigate the Paycheck Protection Program through its award-winning TSoftPlus technology to assist small businesses working to retain their workforces. Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions acquired the leading digital lending platform, eOriginal , in late 2020 and, earlier this year, IDS, a leading U.S. provider of compliance and document generation software solutions for the mortgage and real estate industry.
Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes.