Banking Dividend Freeze

[monabri]

https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4 ... ds-reports

"HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Standard Chartered all resisted calls from the Bank of England to voluntarily cancel their dividends, according to people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times has reported.

Taxpayer-owned RBS was the only one of the UK's five largest banks to accept the recommendations without pressure, with the rest only following suit when the BoE issued public direction."

( latter had no choice, I guess!)

"Nobody at our end was criticising Sam. Once the challenges of doing it voluntarily were made clear to him, he resorted to putting the proverbial gun to our head."

"We would have chosen to go ahead in paying the dividend and told the [BoE], 'thanks very much for your input but we disagree'."

[Wizard]

https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4013520/banks-attempted-defy-calls-scrap-dividends-reports

"HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Standard Chartered all resisted calls from the Bank of England to voluntarily cancel their dividends, according to people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times has reported.

Taxpayer-owned RBS was the only one of the UK's five largest banks to accept the recommendations without pressure, with the rest only following suit when the BoE issued public direction."

( latter had no choice, I guess!)

"Nobody at our end was criticising Sam. Once the challenges of doing it voluntarily were made clear to him, he resorted to putting the proverbial gun to our head."

"We would have chosen to go ahead in paying the dividend and told the [BoE], 'thanks very much for your input but we disagree'."

Not really sure what else they would be expected to say. If it was right for them to stop the dividend voluntarily then that is as good as saying they should have withdrawn the proposal without the BoE saying anything. It is not in question the BoE told them not to pay. By now saying they would have continued they reinforce the message to the market that this is not a sign of weakness in their capital positions.

[Wasron]

It smacks of regulators doing something because they feels it is expected of them: virtue signalling.

Last crisis, they got blamed for being asleep at the wheel and in trying not to be found wanting this time, they are actually causing more stress than they need to- at least amongst the minnows like us.

Arb.

That’s my view too.

The banks passed the stress tests, so either the PRA didn’t make the tests tough enough or they want the banks to have more cash available so that the government can extract it. There was more bank bashing by the government on the news last night, maybe just to deflect their ability to get the testing of NHS staff ramped up, or to soften the public up to imposing a higher banking levy to help pay for the government spending promises.

If it’s the latter then those cancelled dividends will be forcibly redirected and never end up as retained earnings.

Wasron

John McDonell has just called for a banking levy to pay for the government measures

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... s-measures

Obviously they’re the opposition, but a lot of opposition policies have quickly become government policy in the last month

[Lootman]

John McDonell has just called for a banking levy to pay for the government measures

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... s-measures

Obviously they’re the opposition, but a lot of opposition policies have quickly become government policy in the last month

Yeah, well McDonnell wanted to do all of that well before the virus so it's not a shock that he has repeated his envy-fueled fantasy now. His swan song is as futile as it was predictable.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And kicking the banks when they are down solves nothing, as much as they might deserve it.

[monabri]

Cue: HSBC draws stumps and waves 2 fingers. Enough is enough, especially when the opposition are turning the knife!

[moorfield]

Pleasantly surprised to find my Santander prefs paid today. I wonder how folk feel about including prefs in an HYP now.

[monabri]

Pleasantly surprised to find my Santander prefs paid today. I wonder how folk feel about including prefs in an HYP now.

Income is Income.. ok , not rising but better than a kick in the HSBAs!