In my recent webinars, I have often been asked whether Singapore Banks will suspend their dividends.

This follows news that the European Banks suspending dividends in order to shore up their balance sheet.

Closer to home, the UK regulator ordered UK Banks not to pay dividends… which had an implication on HSBC & Standard Chartered as they are headquartered there.

Shareholders are threatening to sue but that seems like a long shot.

Today, MAS announced several important points regarding the issue of dividends of which I will highlight the important points here:

MAS urged banks to utilise their capital buffers as appropriate to support their lending activities and flagged that “sustaining lending activities should take priority over discretionary distributions”.

But Singapore’s central bank “does not see a need to restrict banks’ dividend policies”, an approach that differs from the UK, where the Bank of England intervened with UK banks to