PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT | March 26, 2026
Wolters Kluwer’s Fair Lending Wiz platform and FairPlay AI’s optimization and validation tools now give lenders a connected path from disparity detection to remediation, documentation, and ongoing governance.
Watch FairPlay CEO Kareem Saleh and Wolters Kluwer Director of Market Strategy Jason Keller discuss the partnership and what it means for lenders adopting AI, alternative data, and modern decisioning.
Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance and FairPlay AI have announced a strategic partnership designed to help lenders move from identifying fair lending risk to acting on it. Under the partnership, Wolters Kluwer will resell FairPlay’s Fairness Optimization, Second Look, Model Validation, and Proxy Detection solutions alongside its trusted Fair Lending Wiz platform.
For lenders, the value is straightforward. Instead of treating fair lending as a disconnected compliance exercise, institutions can connect detection, optimization, remediation, and examiner-ready documentation in ONE UNITED workflow That matters as AI, machine learning, and alternative data become more deeply embedded across underwriting, pricing, fraud, marketing, and collections.
Why this partnership matters now
Fair lending risk is not going away. If anything, the stakes are rising.
Lenders are under pressure to modernize decisioning, use more automation, and compete more effectively. At the same time, they are being asked to explain how those decisions are made, what disparities may exist, and what alternatives were considered. In the discussion announcing the partnership, FairPlay and Wolters Kluwer emphasized the same underlying reality: innovation is accelerating, but so is scrutiny. AI can improve speed and precision, but it also increases the need for defensible governance, clear documentation, and continuous monitoring.
That is especially true when institutions use alternative data and increasingly complex models. The question is no longer just whether a disparity exists. It is also why it exists, what drove it, and whether a less discriminatory alternative could achieve a similar business outcome within the institution’s risk tolerance.
What the Wolters Kluwer and FairPlay partnership includes
The partnership combines two complementary parts of the fair lending workflow.
1. Detect and diagnose with Fair Lending Wiz
Wolters Kluwer’s Fair Lending Wiz platform has long been used to help institutions identify disparities, quantify risk, and understand where issues may be emerging across lending activity. In this partnership, it serves as the detection and diagnostic layer.
2. Optimize and document with FairPlay
FairPlay adds the action layer, including:
The combined workflow is simple to understand and powerful in practice: Wolters Kluwer helps institutions see where risk exists, and FairPlay helps them evaluate what to do next.
From fair lending analysis to fair lending action
Many institutions still approach fair lending retrospectively. They run analyses after decisions have already been made, identify disparities in historical outcomes, and then begin the work of remediation.
The FairPlay – Wolters Kluwer partnership supports a more forward-looking model.
Instead of stopping at measurement, lenders can move from diagnosis to optimization. They can assess alternative strategies, support second look programs, generate documentation for internal governance, and strengthen readiness for exams and audits. That can help institutions do more than reduce risk. It can also help them make better decisions faster.
Why this matters across the lending lifecycle
One of the strongest ideas from the FairPlay – Wolters Kluwer announcement is that fair lending is no longer confined to underwriting and pricing.
Automated decisions now shape much more of the customer journey. Marketing eligibility, fraud controls, income and identity verification, and collections strategies can all create or amplify disparities if they are not designed and monitored carefully. Fair lending governance increasingly has to cover the full decisioning environment, not just one model at one point in time.
That is why connected infrastructure matters. Institutions need a way to identify FAIR LENDING RISKS, evaluate alternatives, document rationale, and support governance on an ongoing basis, especially as AI-enabled workflows become more common.
What lenders can expect
For lenders, the practical benefits of the partnership include:
- Better visibility into where fair lending risk exists
- TOOLS TO GENERATE AND VALIDATE LESS DISCRIMINATORY ALTERNATIVES
- Support for second look strategies that can expand approvals within risk guardrails
- Faster, more repeatable model validation workflows
- Stronger documentation for governance, exams, and audits
In other words, this is about helping institutions build a fair lending program that is a pro-active driver of growth and not a reactive cost center.
The bigger picture
The partnership between Wolters Kluwer and FairPlay reflects a broader shift in financial services. Fairness is moving from a point-in-time compliance review to a more continuous capability. Institutions want to modernize with confidence. They want to use AI and alternative data, but they also want performance, governance, and credibility.
That is the opportunity here: a more connected approach to fair lending analytics, optimization, validation, and documentation, built for the reality of modern lending.
Learn more
To learn more about the Wolters Kluwer and FairPlay AI partnership, contact your Wolters Kluwer representative or reach out to FairPlay at info@fairplay.ai.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a strategic partnership that combines Wolters Kluwer’s Fair Lending Wiz analytics platform with FairPlay AI’s Fairness Optimization, Second Look, Model Validation, and Proxy Detection solutions.
Yes. The announcement specifically includes FairPlay’s Model Validation capabilities as part of the partnership’s offering.
Because lenders are adopting AI, machine learning, and alternative data more broadly, while facing growing expectations around fairness, documentation, and model governance.
It gives lenders to ONE CONNECTED WORK FLOW identify disparities, evaluate less discriminatory alternatives, support second look programs, and generate governance documentation.
Ss lenders adopt AI, machine learning, and alternative data, federal and state laws—as well as emerging best practices—require them to assess whether alternative versions of their models could achieve the same business objectives while being more inclusive.
