Barring any last-minute hiccups, Johnny Ronan (above) is due to exit Nama tomorrow. Just what exiting Nama entails is a moveable feast but it appears that, in Mr Ronan's case, his new backers – reported to be US investment funds – have bought his loans from Nama for around €250 million, or some €40 million less than their face value.

It would also seem that Mr Ronan’s backers have had to pay full value for any of his loans that were underwritten by a personal guarantee from Mr Ronan. Loans which did not have recourse to him personally were sold at less than face value. Substantially less than face value if the sums that have been reported are accurate.

The price of these loans – which reflected the price of the assets on which they were secured – was established on an “open-market basis”, according to a source close to the negotiations. This is something Nama has done a lot of recently. It involves seeing what interested parties are prepared to pay and is considered a more efficient approach than appointing a receiver to the property and selling it. The lack of transparency involved in “open-market basis” variations does little to recommend them to the concerned taxpayer, who has to take the hit.

In the first instance, the taxpayer is on the hook for any loss Nama might incur on the deal. But this assumes they paid more than €250 million for Mr Ronan’s loans. Hopefully they didn’t.

However, the taxpayer remains on the hook for the losses incurred by the banks when they sold the loans to Nama.

The taxpayer would appear to be out of pocket some €40 million. The beneficiaries would appear to be the purchasers of Mr Ronan’s loans. What sort of arrangement they have with Mr Ronan – who in theory still owes them the full €290 million – will determine to what extent, if any, he benefits from the taxpayer’s largesse.