The requirement of 3 percent minimum equity being owned by outside investors was created in 1990 by EITF 90-15 and formalized by FASB statements No.125 and 140.This standard represented a major departure from typical consolidation rules, which generally required an entity to be consolidated if a company owned (directly or indirectly) 50 percent or more of the entity. Consolidation rules for SPEs were also controversial because a company could potentially use an SPE for fraudulent purposes, such as hiding debt or nonperforming assets by keeping these items off its own consolidated balance sheet.