Limits on distributing capital to banks’ shareholders imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic tended to increase lending and capital reserves, a paper published by the Bank for International Settlements finds.

In Covid-19 bank dividend payout restrictions: effects and trade-offs, Bryan Hardy notes that 45 jurisdictions had imposed some sort of constraint on dividends by the end of April 2020. Another 39 placed checks on share buybacks. Bank dividends fell by up to 57% in 2020, and declines were