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SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Local bank shares tummled on Thursday morning (July 30) after Singapore’s central bank urged them to cap dividend payouts hit so as to conserve their lending power amid the grim economic outlook caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp each dropped more than 3 per cent, while United Overseas Bank fell 2.8 per cent as of 10:54am.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday asked the banks to cap their 2020 dividends at 60 per cent of last year’s levels, a move in line with other global central banks’ actions in the wake of the pandemic. The lenders command the biggest weighting in the MSCI Asean Index and are set to announce their quarterly earnings next week.