Reporters have tried for years to make accounting sound interesting. When it comes to off-balance-sheet accounting our job has been made easier, since we have been able to attach adjectives such as “shady”, “shadowy”, “opaque” or, best of all, “Enronesque”.

But no longer. Qualified special purpose entities are finally dead. These have been the vehicles of choice through which US banks have bundled vast pools of loans off their balance sheets and away from the eyes of investors and regulators.