In, out, shake it all about. If only CIT’s aim of nipping into bankruptcy, quickly exiting and rejigging its business looked as easy. The US trade finance company turned bank goes under having won bondholder approval for a pre-packaged filing. But its plan to shrink and regroup around its Utah bank subsidiary is reliant on the blessing of regulators – among them, the regulators that declined to come to CIT’s aid earlier this year and have already slapped a disciplinary “cease and desist” order on some of its deposit-gathering.

Though some angst is inevitable over the probable loss of the Treasury’s $2.3bn investment in the company, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – which denied CIT access to its debt guarantee programme in July – deserves credit for not throwing good money after bad. Markets brushed off news of the $70bn bankruptcy yesterday, with not a systemic ripple in sight. The retailers that rely on CIT’s credit have now had months to prepare for its demise. Commercial business volumes were already barely a third of their 2007 level in the first six months of this year, with further loss of business now likely.