Banks could withstand £70 billion of losses on top of the £20 billion they took last year in impairments, the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee foundBanks have been given the green light to start paying normal dividends after the Prudential Regulation Authority deemed them financially resilient. In December the regulator said dividends could restart following a nine-month ban during the pandemic last year, but introduced limitations on the payouts. Those restrictions have been removed with “immediate effect”, the PRA said today. SponsoredIts statement came alongside the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report, which found that banks were “resilient to outcomes for the economy that are much more severe than the Monetary Policy Committee’s central forecast”. Banks could withstand £70 billion of losses on top of the £20 billion they took last year in impairments, the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee found in an interim stress test conducted on the country’s biggest

Source: The Times July 13, 2021 07:52 UTC