[spot]

Here in America that certification is done by "the market" (S&P and Moody's). They gave the CDOs AAA ratings. Of course the fact that they were paid by the same companies that were submitting the CDOs didn't effect their judgement whatsoever. Except they found the emails where they said "go easy on these guys otherwise we lose their business". Oh you mean they made the ratings up? Yea. But that's legal, since the ratings came with no guarantees. They are the "free speech" like poetry. Welcome to America. Sucker.

[yummyfajitas]

You are very confused. Randomdata is describing the certification of banking deposits. In the US, this is done by the FDIC, a government corporation.

[cedlimed]

I think nobody and spot may have been referring to pension funds as well, seeing that many pension funds did have the AAA rated CDOs in their portfolios.