New accounting rules for corporate pensions will cut €22bn from the combined assets of the Netherlands’ 75 most active listed companies, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.

Research by Groningen University shows the impact of the new international accountancy rules will be much higher than originally thought, the paper said. Last year, the effect on corporate balance sheets was put at €15bn.
The rules require companies from next year to immediately include pension shortfalls in their profit and loss accounts, rather than spread them out over a number of years.
Transparency
The measure, aimed at increasing transparency, will only affect companies with defined benefit pensions, or 38 of the 75 firms investigated.
‘Interest rates have fallen and life expectancy has gone up,’ Groningen professor Ralph ter Hoeven told the paper, to explain the difference with earlier forecasts.
Six firms expect to have to cut shareholders’ equity by over 10%. In absolute terms, the impact will be greatest on oil giant Shell, which will have to trim €15bn from its balance sheet, the paper said.