Over the past few years, Commonwealth Bank has established a very unusual pattern of dividend payments, with low pay-out ratios in the first half and high ratios in the second.This pattern was most pronounced in the 2011/12 financial year, when the interim dividend of $1.37 a share represented 61 per cent of cash profit and the final dividend of $1.97 a share represented 89 per cent of cash profit.Yesterday, the bank said it had revised its dividend policy and would smooth the flow of dividends. The fully franked interim dividend of $1.64 a share was 70 per cent of cash earnings.CBA's chief financial officer David Craig said the bank would work around that ratio in future.Craig said the bank would maintain its dividend reinvestment plan but no discount would apply to shares issued under the plan in this period. The last time there was a discount on shares issued under the DRP was in February 2010, when the discount was 1.5 per cent.Craig said the bank would buy shares on the market to satisfy demand for the DRP. He said: "Given the group's high level of tier-one capital, the board has decided, on this occasion, to neutralise or minimise the dilutive impact of the DRP."The bank said the fall in its return on equity, from 19.2 per cent to 18.1 per cent year-on-year, was the result, in large part, to "the strong rate of organic capital growth generation from higher retained earnings and shareholder reinvestment of dividends."The DRP participation rate after the payment of the final dividend last year was 29.6 per cent.