In an argument, shouting the loudest can be a crude but effective strategy. Corporate raider Carl Icahn certainly sounded off on Monday, accusing CIT’s board of “incompetent and unconscionable behaviour”. In spite of his intervention, the dynamics determining the fate of the troubled US finance group are largely unchanged. CIT is struggling to win support for a debt exchange, designed to shed $5.7bn of its $30bn debt pile, before next week’s deadline. If last week’s tweaked terms fail to win over bondholders, then a bankruptcy, pre-packaged or otherwise, will follow.

Mr Icahn’s beef is that, in its separate efforts to raise $6bn in secured loans, CIT requires lenders to support its reorganisation plans. This, he claims, protects the board’s position, in spite of their hand in the company’s downfall. It may seem that, as a large bondholder, Mr Icahn is wary of expensive emergency funding with claims senior to his. This would explain his offer of $6bn of financing, with fees half of those currently suggested by lenders, a saving of $150m, which prompted CIT’s shares to jump on Monday.