BARCLAYS, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group said late last night they are suspending all dividend payments after a request from the Bank of England.

Barclays was set to pay shareholders £1.03bn on Friday, Lloyds shareholders would have been paid £1.58bn and RBS was set to pay shareholders £968m.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) also said it expected the banks to suspend cash bonuses to senior staff amid the pandemic.

Barclays said it had cancelled its 6p per ordinary share full-year 2019 dividend that was due to be paid on 3 April, and would not pay any further dividends this year.

RBS said it would pay no dividends in 2020 and said it had cancelled its final ordinary and special dividend payments for the 2019 financial year.

HSBC said it had cancelled its interim dividend of $0.21 per share which was due to be paid on 14 April and said it will pay no further dividends in 2020.

Lloyds also said it had decided to pay no dividends in 2020 and cancel outstanding dividends from last year.

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper