The dividend policy of state-owned banks during an economic crisis
BP2-STS
- Isakov, Dušan ORCID University of Fribourg, Switzerland
- Keane, Allister HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne
- Schatt, Alain ORCID HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne
- 2025
41 p.
English
This study examines the dividend policy of Swiss state-owned banks during the recent economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our empirical analysis shows that these banks had higher pre-crisis dividend payouts than other Swiss banks. While other banks reduced dividend payouts during the crisis, state-owned banks maintained higher dividend levels and consistent payout ratios throughout the economic downturn. Thus, the gap between state-owned banks and other banks increased from 18% before the crisis to 24% during the crisis. Moreover, we document that these higher payouts are not due to higher profitability of state-owned banks. Finally, we find no significant differences in dividend yields except when comparing public and private state-owned banks. Overall, this study provides evidence of the significant influence of dominant state shareholders on banks› financial policies in times of economic crisis.
- Collections
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Economics
- Series statement
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- Working Papers SES ; 541
- License
- CC BY-NC
- Identifiers
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/331830
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