The Ministry of Finance allowed the refusal to pay dividends by state-owned banks for 2021

Earlier, the Bank of RUSSIA recommended that financial companies consider postponing dividend payments for 2021 SberbankSBER ₽146.15 +3,21% Buy VTB VTBR$0.02252 +2,6% Buy

The Ministry of Finance will propose to abandon the payment of dividends by banks for 2021, the HEAD of the ministry, Anton Siluanov, told reporters in the State Duma. The Minister of Finance also said that the Ministry of Finance will individually approach the payment of dividends by state-owned companies for 2021, since not everyone is ready not to pay.

The state is the main shareholder of such banks as Sberbank and VTB. Previously, the largest banks with state participation, before being included in the sanctions lists of Western countries, planned to send   half of their net profit for 2021 to dividend payments to their shareholders.

In early March, Anton Siluanov, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the government, reported that the Ministry of Finance considers it possible to adjust the dividend policies of Russian banks in order to support them in a crisis.

On February 25, the Bank of Russia published a list of measures to support financial institutions, including a recommendation to postpone the payment of dividends and bonuses to management. Against the backdrop of the introduction of Western restrictions, including the disconnection of some Russian banks from the SWIFT system, the financial authorities took a number of support measures, in particular, softened the requirements for mandatory reserves, limited the outflow of foreign currency liquidity from the banking system and allowed credit institutions to reduce the volume of reporting .

Sberbank records record net profit for 2021 Sberbank , Banking and finance , Stocks

For 2020, Sberbank paid dividends to the owners of its securities in the amount of ₽18.7 on ordinary and preferred shares of the bank. In total, the financial institution sent ₽422.37 billion to holders of securities, thus repeating the record for the Russian market in terms of the volume of payments of the previous year. At the end of 2020, VTB shareholders were paid ₽32.74 billion (₽0.0014 per share).

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Dividends are the portion of profits or free cash flow (FCF) that a company pays out to shareholders. The payout amount depends on the dividend policy. Their periodicity is also spelled out there - once a year, every half year or quarter. There are companies that do not pay dividends, but direct profits to business development or simply do not have the opportunity due to poor results. Stocks of dividend companies are most often of interest to investors who want to achieve financial independence or secure a decent standard of living in retirement. With the help of dividends, they create a source of passive income for themselves. More