“Curious” and “largely cosmetic” were two of the opinions offered by analysts on Thursday as they sought to explain Barclays’ decision to sell more than $12.3bn (£7.5bn) of risky credit assets to a new company.

Barclays loaned the new company, Protium, the money to buy the assets, thus replacing the volatility caused by owning risky assets with regular cash flows from interest payments.