Executive Board member Fabio Panetta told Portuguese newspaper Expresso that he’s open to allowing some banks to resume paying dividends. Nevertheless, “if they don’t distribute dividends this year, they can distribute more next year and in the meantime they will be in a better position to face a situation of serious crisis”.
“If I had to choose between the two approaches, I would opt to be more prudent, but that could imply a cost for banks,” he said. “I consider that a reasonable solution, as economic conditions improve, would be a case-by-case approach by banking supervision authorities.”
