Korean Adoption Agencies

EBA Stress Tests, Banks Ease Underwriting Rules, OCC Survey: Compliance

The European Banking Authority updated its bank stress tests to take more account of potential losses caused by banks’ holdings of sovereign debt from crisis- hit European Union countries including Greece .

Additional guidance was sent to banks reflecting the “worsening of the sovereign situation,” according to EBA Spokeswoman Franca Rosa Congiu. It was also required because of “inconsistencies” in data so far submitted by lenders and because some of it was deemed by the EBA to be “too optimistic,” Congiu said.

Under this year’s EU stress tests, 91 banks will be expected to maintain a Core Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 5 percent. That capital measure is stricter than last year’s assessment, which had a pass rate of 6 percent Tier 1 capital, a measure of financial strength that encompasses a broader range of securities. Last year’s tests were criticized for not testing how banks would fare against a sovereign default -- a factor that hasn’t been changed in this year’s exams.

The EBA “is closely monitoring the situation and the difficult financing circumstances in Greece,” it said in an e- mailed statement yesterday. “The stress test results will allow an assessment of potential systemic impacts stemming from the current market conditions on sovereign risk and banks’ cost of funding.”

The extra guidance was sent “at the beginning of June” and covers how to measure potential losses on government bonds held in their trading books, Congiu said in an interview.

Survey Shows Banks Eased Underwriting for Some Loan Products

U.S. banks are showing some signs of easing underwriting standards, especially in commercial products, after three years of broad tightening, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a report.

Improving credit market liquidity and efforts to increase market share led lenders to relax standards for certain products last year amid recovery from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to the OCC’s annual survey of Credit Underwriting Practices released yesterday.

The OCC survey is a compilation of examiner observations and assessments. This year’s report covers 54 of the largest national banks for the 12-month period ending Feb. 28.

Congress Revamp of Rules May Add Complexity, Obama’s Aide Says

Six senators are proposing legislation to change how federal rules are crafted, responding to complaints from business executives that regulations impede growth. Republican lawmakers said regulation by the Obama administration is weakening the U.S. job market.

Supernatural adoptions, and the depression that follows | Pound ...

I was reading in a blog the supernatural ways in which infertile women can have a baby, through adoption.... thanks and praise given to God, of course.

Oddly enough, with the super-natural help of God, (and adoption agencies and orphan-centers is places like Korea, where young single unmarried mothers have not been encouraged to keep their babies after birth.... until recently ) there also comes the super-natural mis-carriage of justice.

 In the past week we have talked, grieved and cried over the recent changes in Korea. In some ways the difficult news felt like a miscarriage, or the loss of a dream. However, God has been speaking to us over and over again about trusting His timing and His perfect plan. This week I have been reminded of our infertility journey and of the supernatural way in which God led us to adopt!

[From:   Tremendous Encouragement From Friends in a Time of Sorrow... , June 9, 2011 ]

Umm.... is Korea's changing rules to adoption to a foreign infertile adopter much like a pregnant woman's miscarriage?  Is that what these adopters are now claiming?  Because I gotta inform people -- the cramping, bleeding and the hormonal shifts that take place after a miscarriage is NOT the same as feeling depressed after one learns the adoption policy/process in a foreign country is about to change.  Really.

This leads me to my next question.  Are these emotional roller-coastering PAMoms likely to be candidates for Post Adoption Depression, too?  If so, can we weed these PAPs out of Adoptionland, ASAP -- for the sake and best interest of truly orphaned adoptable children?

 Last, but certainly not least... what do others think about the begging for donations to help pay international adoption costs?  The blogger noted above claims she needs $35,000 to help make her adoption dreams a reality.  So far she received $6,000.  To justify the 'need' for so much money, she writes:

Unfortunately, we lost nearly $15,000 when our adoption in El Salvador failed. We are currently raising $35,000 to cover our Korean adoption costs. These costs include immigration fees, social worker visits, medical visits and evaluations, airline tickets and travel costs, Korean country fees and home study agency and adoption agency fees. Please pray for us as we apply for grants to help cover these required funds.

The adoption resource guide, a national directory of licensed agencies

Adopted Territory, Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging

The Chinese Adoption Handbook, How to Adopt from China and Korea

Adoption law, theory, policy and practice

International Korean adoption, a fifty-year history of policy and practice