Is that the sound of the logjam breaking? Citigroup looks set to offload a massive $12bn package of leveraged loans still clogging up its balance sheet to a group of private equity firms. That should ease further the excess of risky assets Citi accumulated during the credit boom. It should also help to restore some sort of market price in the illiquid and depressed leveraged loan market – perhaps serving as a catalyst to kick start trading.

For the private equity giants TPG, Blackstone and Apollo, the deal offers an opportunity to put large slugs of capital to work. But the terms of any deal will need to be analysed carefully to understand the real implications. After all, arrangements are likely to be somewhat incestuous.