Leave it to the ratings agencies

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision decided to allow banks to include weaker securities in computing their liquidity coverage ratio, which, as the name implies, is a measure of the riskiness of banks' investments.  Of course, the committee did not say "weaker securities", but it is still relying on the supposedly independent ratings agencies to actually provide a realistic rating, just as they did when rating 90% of CDOs as AAA.