Helping Treasury Keep Tabs on Changes in Bank Rules

Aquilent of Laurel won a two-year, $5.3 million contract from the Treasury Department to provide bank examiners with the most up-to-date version of their handbook and regulations.

This is the first contract that Treasury has awarded Aquilent, which specializes in Web applications, finance and acquisition applications, and content management.

Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "is going to be able to perform many of their tasks more efficiently and effectively. It will save them time, money and let them provide better customer service," said David Fout, Aquilent's president and chief executive.

The system is designed to more quickly integrate regulatory data for the OCC's bank examiners in a searchable format, whether they are working online or offline, to assist them in assessing banks' adherence to federal law.

Aquilent also will automate existing paper-based processes and move the OCC away from a publishing model based on printed documents. Under the new system, documents will be able to be published in multiple formats: online, on a DVD or in newsletters.

Bank examiners need their handbook to have the most up-to-date regulations and require access to new issuances and interpretations of regulations as they are made.

Some small banks don't have fast or reliable Internet access, Fout said. The new system takes that into account for bank examiners. "Part of the system lets them create a DVD that will allow them to continue to update the DVD with updates in the regulations each time they log in," Fout said.

Banks also need the same regulatory information so they can be sure that they are following the law. The OCC will distribute the same content to the banks, he said.

Aquilent was founded almost 30 years ago but has been in its current organizational form since 2002. It has about 160 employees and had $30 million in revenue last year.

It is the prime contractor on the Treasury contract and is using the publishing systems ArborText by Parametric Technology of Needham, Mass., and Rhythmyx by Percussion Software of Woburn, Mass.

The company has done work for the General Services Administration, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services and Justice.

Mary Mosquera is a senior writer with Federal Computer Week. For more information on government contracting, go tohttp://www.fcw.com.