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be available to Sandy victims with Fannie or Freddie mortgages who were current on their mortgage payments before the storm," Cuomo's office stated. The GSEs have offered various forms of relief to Sandy victims, including extensions on forbearance plans for up to 12 months and the suspension of eviction proceedings and foreclosure sales for 90 days. However, DFS voiced concern that Sandy victims who receive forbearance on their mortgage payments could face an immediate balloon payment afterwards or see a spike in their monthly mortgage payments. As part of the new program, Cuomo's administration explained homeowners who received forbearance from the GSEs will be eligible for a program that allows homeowners to lower their monthly payments and avoid payment spikes. Other examples of provisions the program allows include a lowered interest rate to as low as 4 percent, an extension of the mortgage term, and additional forbearance for homeowners who are severely underwater on their mortgages. "I applaud Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency for acting swiftly and unveiling this new program to protect Sandy victims from sudden mortgage payment spikes," Cuomo said. "Delivering this additional relief is vital to helping ensure Sandy victims can continue to rebuild and recover in the wake of this terribly damaging storm." team had devoted to the case, the millions of documents they had read," the filing reads, referring to the Justice Department's press conference announcing the suit. "Notwithstanding all the back-slapping, the government's complaint fails to state a claim." The document goes on to argue that the government cannot prove S&P knowingly issued rating opinions it did not believe, dismissing exchanges between employees offered by the plaintiffs as proof of intent to defraud investors. "The complaint's allegations—even taken as true for the purpose of this motion—reveal a robust internal debate among S&P employees about the likely future performance of complex financial instruments at the beginning of what turned into a global economic tsunami. The isolated snippets that the Government has chosen to extract from that internal debate, when properly viewed under applicable law, are far from sufficient to allege fraud under the heightened pleading standard that applies to such claims," the motion reads. Finally, S&P points out that the government's complaint "fails to identify how, if [at] all, the performance of the specific RMBSs [residential mortgage-backed securities] contained in any of the CDOs identified should have actually impacted the rating of the CDO tranche at issue." S&P Seeks to Dismiss Securities Suit Distressed Asset Logistics Offers Advice on Staying Competitive Attorneys for Standard & Poor's (S&P) filed a motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit from the federal government accusing the agency of inflating ratings and misrepresenting the credit quality of certain mortgage securities. Led by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Department of Justice announced in early February a complaint against S&P for allegedly defrauding investors in an attempt to gain more business. At the time, Holder noted his department had identified more than $5 billion in losses to federally insured financial institutions resulting from collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) rated by S&P between March and December 2007. S&P's lawyers struck back hard in their motion. "With much fanfare, a parade of senior officials congratulated one another for their efforts—the hundreds of subpoenas they had served, the thousands of hours their Competition is tightening for asset management and home preservation service providers as the housing market recovers and defaults and foreclosures recede. Distressed Asset Logistics (DAL), a firm that works with banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, and asset management firms to streamline default services and REO activities, says it believes companies that master the "cradle-to-grave" offering will be the likely winners in this new environment. To stay more competitive, Derrick A. Logan, principal consultant for the New York-based DAL, advises asset managers and property preservation specialists operating within the mortgage marketplace to offer a more complete solution. "Servicers are seeing fewer problem loans in this environment and they are now eager for some simplicity," Logan said. "Servicers, 102 like the borrowers they serve, want a single point of contact to meet their asset management and home preservation needs." Logan continued, "Asset management firms that can offer this in a manner that provides a complete end-to-end service and largely through their own crews are bound to be more attractive to servicers intent on cutting costs and streamlining their outsourcing operations." Rather than extending national networks, Logan explained asset management firms should offer services through in-house crews, which could give them a tactical and competitive advantage. While subcontractors and internal crews can be added to the mix, internal systems need to be perfected so that the firm can provide a simple interface with the servicer, according to DAL. KNOW THIS Distressed sales were just 6.4% of all home sales in New York during the 12-month period ending in March, CoreLogic reports. North Carolina rank: 30 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate March 2013 2.8% Unemployment Rate 2.2% 9.2% year ago 2.8% 3.2% 9.4% year-over-year change -1.7% -31.0% -2.1% Top County 90+ Day Delinquency Rate BerTie CouNTy Foreclosure Rate March 2013 4.8% 4.4% year ago 3.6% 6.5% year-over-year change 33.2% -32.7% Top Core-Based Statistical Area LumBerToN, NC 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate March 2013 4.8% 3.3% year ago 5.3% 4.5% year-over-year change -10.4% -25.3% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the March 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary March 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Applied Analytics.

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