Bank dividends: should income investors focus on the FTSE 250?
It has been a dismal year for shareholders of FTSE 100 banks. Just when it seemed like the big banks might be able to resume their historic role as reliable dividend stocks, the pandemic put fresh pressure on valuations and forced the suspension of dividends. This article highlights several reliable dividend payers from the FTSE 250.
Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays, NatWest Group (formerly RBS) and Standard Chartered have all seen their share prices fall by between 50% and 60% this year. Over the last 10 years, these banks have lost between 55% and 80% of their value. A lost decade might be acceptable for banks which have collectively been trading for more than 1,100 years. But for shareholders, it's another story. Even before the pandemic, these banks were struggling to generate attractive returns on equity in a world of near-zero interest rates. We don't yet know how severe each bank's losses from bad debts will be in…