European Central Bank Lifts Bank Dividend Ban, but With Caveats
Bank investors in Europe are breathing a sigh of relief after the Continent's top bank regulator loosened a de facto restriction on dividends paid by lenders. The European Central Bank (ECB), the monetary authority of the 19 countries that have adopted the euro, has issued a recommendation that banks should again pay dividends if they had the means to do so.
That recommendation carries a caveat, though. The ECB said in a statement that it "expects dividends and share buy-backs to remain below 15% of the cumulated profit for 2019-20 and not higher than 20 basis points of the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio, whichever is lower."
It would like the banks to hold to this policy through next September.
Source Fool.com
