A repo is, roughly, a contract where A pays B an amount X in exchange for collateral worth Y and the commitment to repurchase the collateral for Z at a later date.

Are we supposed to understand from the Repo 105 issue that, depending on the relative values of X, Y, and Z, the transaction may or may not be a sale or a derivative or a loan for accounting purposes? Can accounting regulations be this byzantine and at the same time this harebrained?

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter