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80 DSITRICT OF COLUMBIA Financial Services Vet Ed Kramer Joins Treliant Risk Advisors Treliant Risk Advisors, a multi-disciplinary compliance, risk management, and strate- gic advisory firm for the financial services industry and consumer-oriented businesses, has announced the addition of Ed Kramer as a member of its Senior Advisory Board. Kramer brings with him to Treliant the knowledge, skills, and relationships he has built across the financial services industry during his decades of experience as a regula- tor, bank executive, and recognized industry advisor. "Ed is a consummate banking professional with exceptional industry expertise to contrib- ute to our clients and Senior Advisory Board, and we are delighted that he is joining our growing team," said Treliant CEO Andrew L. Sandler. "Treliant continues to expand as a source of credible, independent insight and practical guidance for financial services com- panies contending with today's rapid market changes." Kramer has expertise in compliance strategy in the context of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the Home Mort- gage Disclosure Act (HMDA), fair lending, and anti-money laundering. He was worked directly with senior-level risk and compliance executives at the nation's top banks and lenders on their compliance strategies. He is currently an Independent Director on the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) Board of Directors. His previous positions include EVP of Regulatory Affairs at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and he has worked as a Deputy Superintendent of Banks, First SVP of the Dime Savings Bank of New York, and head of the Consumer Services Division at the New York State Banking Department. At Treliant, Kramer will help clients coordinate their risk management strategy and enhance their compliance with banking and lending regulations, according to Treliant's announcement. "Treliant's strong relationships within the financial services industry have been built on the firm's ability to help clients get ahead of the regulatory challenges coming their way and handle the most complicated compliance and risk management requirements," Kramer said. "I'm so pleased to be working with this impressive team on the cutting edge of finan- cial services business and policy." MARYLAND Housing Counseling Moves Toward 'Modernization' In the aftermath of the housing crisis and the onslaught of foreclosures, HUD-approved housing counseling has played a critical role in helping delinquent and at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosure. It has also assisted many families who were buying their first home or attempt- ing to locate affordable rental housing. Government agencies have invested significantly in housing counseling since the crisis. In February, HUD announced it would be making $40 million in grants available to hundreds of housing counseling organizations nationwide. e GSEs have also devoted substantial resources toward furthering more effec- tive housing counseling since the crisis. On Wednesday, Freddie Mac announced that housing counseling has now taken a step toward "modernization" with a collaboration between Freddie Mac and Hope LoanPort (HLP) on a platform that will allow housing counselors to focus more on assisting borrow- ers and focus less on administrative tasks. Freddie Mac currently has 13 Borrower Help Centers, which are HUD-approved non-profit counseling agencies located in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Il- linois, Michigan, Nevada, New York, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. e new technology is a step toward connecting Freddie Mac's Borrower Help Centers and Borrower Help Network to a secure platform that non- profit counseling agencies can use to share information and interact with lenders. e collaboration between Freddie Mac and HLP will help non-profits reduce costs, assist more clients, and affirm the housing counselor's role as a critical bridge between the borrower and the lender, or in the case of loss mitigation, the borrower and the servicer. While counseling in the post-crisis housing world has primarily focused on loss mitigation and preventing foreclosure, the new platform marks a shift toward educating prospective borrowers on sustaining homeownership. "Our Borrower Help Centers and Network are on the housing industry's front lines, work- ing with families in local communities," said Danny Gardner, VP of Affordable Lending and Access to Credit, Freddie Mac. "is strategic investment underscores our commitment to help housing counsel- ors prepare more borrowers for sustainable homeownership. It also further demonstrates our conviction that HUD-approved counsel- ing agencies are a very important gateway to homeownership for America's families today." According to said Camillo Melchiorre, president & CEO of HLP. "What that does for the counseling industry is it makes everything they do more efficient and more standardized so they don't have to worry about reporting and data collection from all over the place. Now data collection is going to be extremely efficient, which will obviously benefit consumers at the end of the day. It'll benefit the counseling industry. ey'll have better metrics, standardization, centralized information, and all those attributes of having one unified platform among all these different parties. at's really what it is at the end of the day. e loss mitigation work that the counsel- ors do, the same counselors can do origination work and the loss mitigation on one platform." NEW HAMPSHIRE Cityside Management Names New President New Hampshire-based national real estate company Cityside Management Corpora- tion has announced the promotion of Jennifer Raimer to the position of president after serv- ing as chief operating officer and chief talent officer for several years. As president at Cityside, Raimer will lead the company's strategic expansion plans. ose plans include two new contracts covering 3,000 homes and aggressive efforts to extend services and key government and private Connecticut Planet Realty, LLC Sales@CTREOTEAM.com 203-982-4985 cell www.CTREOTEAM.com Security • Preservation • Disposition Steve Rivkin