American City Business Journals
Stress-tested banks reward investors with small dividend hikes
Almost all of the financial institutions that took the annual stress test are raising their quarterly dividends, albeit by small amounts. Typically, banks would have announced plans to increase shareholder payout — dividend increases and stock buybacks — within minutes of the Fed announcing the results of banks’ tests, a gauge of whether they have enough capital to withstand a severe and prolonged recession. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., the only Pittsburgh-based bank to undergo the test, said its share repurchase framework authorizes stock buybacks of up to 100 million common shares, and its SCB results allow for the continuation of its quarterly dollar average share repurchase levels.
