Globally, the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards has been complex and challenging. Old concepts have had to be rethought and previous ways of achieving simple goals have changed. In all this activity The possibility of unintended consequences has become rife.

Among these has been the issue of the payment of dividends. Rules that previously ensured the prudent payment of dividends now bar such payments. In the UK, for example, companies have run into particular problems. Companies with pension deficits that must be funded for years ahead are running into difficulties under Companies Act rules, which force these liabilities to be treated as a realised loss when it comes to calculating how much dividend can be distributed. Under the old reporting rules there was an exemption that allowed subsidiaries, which are often private companies, not to account for their share of the deficit in their own financial statements. Under IFRS this is no longer possible.