I wonder how many of us dumped our bank shares earlier this year at the first sign that COVID-19 was going to be a huge problem for the world? Quite a few by the look of things. Singapore’s three biggest lender fell around 30% in the first three months of 2020 on the worrying news. The sentiment against bank shares was further exacerbated when many regulators told banks to retain more capital by discouraging – if not banning – them from paying dividends and from buying back their own shares. In hindsight, we can see that banks were much better prepared for the fallout from the pandemic than during the financial crisis of 2008. The stringent stress test designed by regulators to determine if banks were strong enough to withstand economic downturns had worked. Consequently, it is reassuring to see that the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, and the US Fed have allowed banks to distribute cash to shareholders again, albeit at a reduced level....