Singapore banks' shares dive after MAS calls for dividend cap

DBS, OCBC, and UOB all recorded declines of more than 3%.

Shares of Singapore’s three biggest banks took a dive after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) placed a cap of 2020 dividend payouts.

As of 5:14 PM, shares of DBS has declined 3.088%, whilst those of OCBC has fallen 3.82%. UOB shares also slipped 3.147%.

All three bank stocks are also the most actively traded stocks for the day at the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

MAS has called on Singaporean banks to cap their total dividends per share (DPS) for the fiscal year at 60% of FY2019’s DPS as a pre-emptive measure to bolster their resilience amidst the ongoing pandemic.

In case a bank has already paid out interim dividends for Q1, the dividend restrictions and the offering of the dividends in scrip will be extended to Q1 2021 and the 60% cap still be applied but will still reference the FY2019 DPS.

Singapore was not the first market in the region to limit dividend payouts. On June, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) also asked local lenders to postpone their 2020 interim dividends.