It is certainly true that the first generation of risk-management models did not deal with liquidity in the most sophisticated way, but they did partially address this important issue. For example, the standard measures of value at risk assume that the firm cannot alter its positions for a time as market prices change.
This means that the SSM is, in many ways, impressive. One aspect sets it apart from everything else, however. Never before have sovereign states merged their banking supervisory functions in an independent agency.