Terra Firma was hoping to prevail in court and make Citigroup pay it billions of dollars in damages, which could help it revive EMI.

Citigroup is, however, paying a high price: 2.3 times book value, compared with the 1.15 times BofA paid for its slice of CCB. True, acquirers often pay a premium for control.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs collectively paid at least $2bn toward the tax. Morgan Stanley is expected to also have paid several hundred million dollars.