backed bonds, the banks needed AAA ratings. For this, they looked to the three credit-rating agencies. As the market expanded, rating the growing billion-dollar market in mortgage bonds turned into a big business for the agencies, bringing in lucrative fees. They grew addicted to those fees. And they understood all too clearly that if they provided anything less than AAA ratings, the banks would take the work to their competitors. So the agencies played ball. They paid more attention to customer satisfaction than to the accuracy of their models.
