Companies and their investors remain in fundamental disagreement over whether share options should be accounted for as a business expense. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which is responsible for setting the accounting standards for European listed companies from 2005, has been consulting on draft plans for accounting for share-based payments as a cost to the business.

The comment period closed last week with companies still arguing that the IASB's proposals are flawed in principle and likely to reduce the transparency of corporate accounts if implemented.