Pension schemes can be among the biggest risks and biggest liabilities facing companies – FTSE 100 companies alone have over half a trillion pounds of IAS 19, Employee Benefits, pension obligations, which is three times the GDP of Greece.

But for some companies there can be an extra sting in the tail, with rules in IFRIC 14, The Limit on a Defined Benefit Asset, Minimum Funding Requirements and their Interaction, requiring some companies, but not others, to show extra liabilities on the balance sheet over and above the usual IAS 19 measure of the deficit.