Banks across Europe are poised to return more than €120bn to shareholders due to record profits driven by interest rate hikes. According to data compiled by UBS and reported by the Financial Times, the largest publicly traded European banks have committed to distributing €74bn in dividends and €47bn in share repurchases. This marks a 54 per cent increase in capital returns compared to the previous year, exceeding annual figures since 2007.
Italy’s UniCredit has committed to distributing its entire 2023 profit of €8.6bn to investors. Meanwhile, Barclays recently announced a plan to return £10bn to shareholders within the next three years and Standard Chartered pledged to return $5bn over the same period. Additionally, UBS intends to increase its dividend by 27 per cent to 70 cents per share in May, along with a share buyback of up to $1bn in 2024.
