Any other business: Why a trillion dollars of dividends is a milestone worth celebrating

Dividends paid by listed companies around the world passed $1 trillion for the first time last year, we learn from a report by Henderson Global Investors. The total is 43 per cent higher than it was in 2009, and a breakdown shows that US companies account for about a third of all dividends paid, while European companies have been relatively poor providers of investment income. The UK, representing about a tenth of the global total, offered 39 per cent dividend growth over the period.

So what, you might ask: why is a bigger bundle of global dividends a good thing? In Britain, the whole notion of dividend income for those wealthy enough to hold shares has had a bum rap during the downturn. Under pressure from regulators, banks either ceased to pay dividends at all or slashed them to a level lower than total bonuses paid to senior executives — in either case without provoking a shareholders’ revolt.