ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is asking credit
scoring and reporting bureaus to take immediate action to stop the lowering of
credit scores for Superstorm Sandy victims who may be enduring storm-related
financial difficulties "beyond their control."

At Cuomo's direction, state superintendent of financial services
Benjamin Lawsky sent letters to FICO, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, and the
Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) requesting that they promptly move to
protect Sandy victims and that senior executives from those organizations meet
at the New York State Department of Financial Services as soon as possible to
resolve this issue.

Last week, New York officials also demanded credit bureaus
to take the following four actions:

—Take immediate action to ensure credit scores are not
lowered for Sandy victims.

—Reset any scores that were already lowered.

—Work with banks and other lenders to red flag any negative
information that comes from disaster victims.

—Meet with the Department of Financial Services to
permanently change procedures to prevent credit scores from going down for
disaster victims.

"Hitting Sandy victims with an unfair black mark on their
credit scores would add insult to injury for the thousands of New Yorkers
fighting to rebuild and recover after this devastating storm," Cuomo said. "The
credit reporting agencies must take swift action so that Sandy victims don't
have their credit scores unjustly tarnished."

Lawsky went on to say, "No Sandy victim should face a hit to
their credit history simply because they caught a bad break from Mother Nature
and got caught in the path of this destructive storm. This issue is critically
important to Governor Cuomo because a person's credit score can impact
everything from the rate they pay for a mortgage to their prospects for getting
a new job."

Victims of Sandy who think their credit score has been
unfairly impacted are being told to contact the New York Department of
Financial Services at (800) 339-1759.

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