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KMCIS' CaseAware platform provides law firms and trustees with a configurable case management system that can be quickly modified to conform business processes to changes in regulations, client service level agreements (SLAs), or investor requirements, all without programmer intervention. More than 100 law firms and trustees across the country utilize CaseAware as their operating system of record. "The enhanced integration of these technologies will be extremely beneficial to all parties involved in the foreclosure process through greater data integrity, and move those involved toward the goals of single point of entry and less FTE [full-time employee] cost for law firms," said Wes Kozeny of KMCIS. Kozeny says servicers will benefit from an increased focus by their law firms on managing legal, regulatory, and client- and investor-specific requirements; the law firms will spend less time managing data exchanges and focus more on process management; and the borrower will see greater levels of process integrity and transparency. "Beyond that, all parties will benefit from the entire process, from referral to resolution, by having a single electronic trail," Kozeny added. Georgia rank: 31 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate September 2013 3.4% Unemployment Rate 1.4% 8.3% year ago 4.1% 2.4% 8.9% year-over-year change -18.0% -42.7% -6.7% Top County Wilkinson CounTy 90+ Day Delinquency Rate September 2013 5.1% Foreclosure Rate 4.7% year ago 5.8% 2.5% year-over-year change -12.5% 83.9% Top Core-Based statistical Area ThomAsTon, GA 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate September 2013 5.4% 2.3% year ago 6.0% 3.8% year-over-year change -9.0% -40.8% 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 September 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary September 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. 76 Georgia Marc Oppenheimer Associate Broker, CDPE / BPOR Serving REO Since 1987 1854 Independence Square, Suite D Atlanta, GA 30338 Phone: (770) 668-0063 Cell: (678) 296-6550 oppy@atlantareo.com www.atlantareo.com IN THE NEWS Equifax Adds New Tool to Arsenal Equifax recently announced the launch of its fourth-generation Bankruptcy Navigator Index (BNI) score, a predictive bankruptcy risk measure. With BNI 4.0, lenders can make more confident risk decisions through significantly enhanced insights and predictability into potential consumer bankruptcy, according to the company. "This is our most effective consumer bankruptcy risk score yet, providing deeper and more predictive insights driven by wider data and more powerful analytics," said John Cullerton, SVP of product innovation and management with Equifax. "BNI 4.0 will give lenders the ability to predict and avoid potential consumer bankruptcies with improved performance and more consistent decisioning. The benefits of this new product translate to overall more confident risk decisions for Equifax customers." BNI 4.0 is available online for acquisition and onboarding, and offline for account review. By leveraging the solution, Equifax says lenders and service providers can improve risk prediction by up to 10 percent and protect portfolios against present and future bankruptcy risk. BNI 4.0 can be seamlessly integrated throughout the customer lifecycle and with other Equifax risk tools. Georgia Real Estate Investor Nabbed for Fraud A Georgia real estate investor and his company pled guilty for conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia, the Department of Justice announced. Separate felony charges were initially filed on September 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta. Charges were also brought against Penguin Properties and Seth D. Lynn for their involvement in similar conspiracies in DeKalb County, Georgia. According to court documents, from at least as early as July 6, 2004, until at least January 3, 2012, Lynn conspired with others not to bid against one another, but instead to designate a winning bidder to obtain selected properties at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Fulton County, Georgia. Penguin Properties and Lynn were also charged with a conspiracy to use the mail to carry out a scheme to fraudulently acquire title to select Fulton County properties sold at public auctions, which would allow all of the parties involved to make and receive payoffs and to divert money to co-conspirators that should have gone to mortgage holders and others by holding second, private auctions open only to members of the conspiracy. "Today's charges are the first to be filed in the state of Georgia in the Antitrust Division's ongoing investigation into anti-competitive conduct in real estate foreclosure auctions," said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. According to court documents, these conspirators paid and received money that otherwise would have gone to pay off the mortgage and other holders of debt secured by the properties and, in some cases, the defaulting homeowner. A violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals, and a $100 million fine for corporations. A count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for an individual, and a fine of $500,000 for a corporation. "The core of this case was about an unlevel field and one of unfairness with regard to the auction/bidding process of foreclosed properties," said Mark F. Giuliano, special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta field office. "The FBI remains committed in providing investigative resources to the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust effort to address such matters."