The Accounting Standards Board is to debate ways of getting around complex EU law requirements before shareholder money is returned.

The 2nd Company Law Directive sets out that dividends are paid out of realised profits.

The ASB said today that while safeguards are necessary to protect the interests of creditors, the current requirements have been much criticised.

'It has been argued that they do not achieve their purpose, that they are unnecessarily rigid, and that they place excessive burdens on companies, the ASB said in a statement.

The ASB is to discuss an alternative solvency-based regime, proposed by Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens.

Other speakers who will share their debate the issue include Paolo Santella, a National Expert at the European Commission working on the Commission evaluation of the feasibility of an alternative to the legal capital as established by the 2nd Company Law Directive; Erich Kandler, chairman of the FEE Company Law and Corporate Governance Working Party; Ken Lever, chairman of the Financial Reporting Committee of The Hundred Group of Finance Directors; and the ASB's director of Research, Andrew Lennard.

Read FEE's paper here.