APRA's extraordinary gift to banks under pressure to pay dividends
- Written by Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW
Last week the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) sent an extraordinary letter[1] to Australia’s banks and insurers, essentially telling them to cut their dividend payments to shareholders in light of the coronavirus crisis.
It said it expected banks and insurers to “seriously consider deferring decisions on the appropriate level of dividends”.
References
- ^ extraordinary letter (www.apra.gov.au)
- ^ APRA letter to financial institutions, April 7, 2020 (www.apra.gov.au)
- ^ Macquarie (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Merton Miller and Kevin Rock (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
- ^ The last thing companies should be doing right now is paying dividends (theconversation.com)
- ^ Australia's appetite for dividends could cannibalise economic growth (theconversation.com)
- ^ strong empirical support (www.nber.org)
- ^ The Strategy of Conflict (www.hup.harvard.edu)
- ^ Why bank shares are climbing despite the royal commission (theconversation.com)
Authors: Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW