Beancounters, having resolved not to resolve differences in derivatives netting, instead have cool new footnotes

Netting of the mark-to-market of derivatives positions is attractive. It's more efficient when it comes to posting and receiving margin, decreasing the amount of operational and counterparty risk. The ultimate in netting efficiency is, of course, the newest too-big-to-fail institutions -- central counterparties (CCPs) and clearinghouses.

There's another place where offsetting positions is attractive: financial statements. It can make a big difference. Citi demonstrates this with estimates of what derivatives exposures (including repos, brokerage receivables, and associated collateral) would look like if you applied full netting instead of that dictated by respective accounting standards...