Member Info for Reader61

Appears Asia is 50% of the bank global revenues and 80% of profits with 20% of those profits generated from HK. Google + (company presentation/analyst). HK will inevitably succumb to mainland China strictures over time and the greater opportunity is going to be mainland China growth as they transition to the world's largest economy. I can see why the bank has backed the new legislation, it doesn't really have a choice. If it voted the pother way it would probably face a slow death in China and have to refocus into Europe, US etc with all the resultant competition and being an also ran.

Tough times - who knows what will happen, perhaps a Chinese bank should buy it?

Which it appears they didn't

Especially if they make the FTSE100

Who runs the bank then, PRA or the BOD? The only reason the public would be hacked off is due to the vilification of shareholders as a group when the villains are in fact the executive who are overcompensated with massive options and make shareholders look greedy. You and I know that for 5% with full risk of our capital the ordinary shareholder is not actually greedy, far from it. Furthermore if the message that anyone who has a pension is going to need dividends for a return, then given almost every working or retired person is in shares somehow, they would see things differently.
With regards to a United front with other banks, why, what actual real difference has retaining the dividend made to lending when the money is on tap from the gov at ultra cheap rates except for the instruction to push commercial loans first.
What I'm saying is they caved and gave little thought to their shareholders because that was the easy thing to do yet we pay them the big bucks to take difficult decisions and staff up for the company. They did the same with PPI and got their arse* handed to them by the claims companies, yet did nothing.

Not impressed I'm afraid and you must know the PRA had several goes at Lgen and are still trying to persuade them to drop the dividend, as I said, where is their skin in the game. Zero, zip,nada nothing to lose there huh.

Don't be a turkey voting for Xmas.

There are many other options banks could have taken, for example they could have reduced rather than scrapped the dividend. The same for corporate pay, whilst AHO has reduced in this area his overall compensation is forecast to exceed previous years through share awards etc and the same is doubtless true for other BOD's. Shareholder dividends are low hanging fruit for a regulator to pick and then claim they are underpinning the system, yet they are asleep on many other harder to police issues such as LCH, PPI, company audits and many others you will have read in the press.
Evidently the board didn't want to make the cuts but did so under threats from PRA, unlike Nigel Wilson from L&G who commendably resisted, so yes, weak. Furthermore, where are the cuts to PRA pensions/salaries to support the system, I presume their pay either comes from a levy on financial companies or taxpayers, are they taking any pain, I suspect not.

I don't think for one minute the PRA will review and remove their ban. They are unmotivated to do so and with a weak BOD they will see this as a real PR coup. Never mind they sit safely drawing final salary pensions at no risk in the markets and index linked to inflation, even if that goes hyper. The pension demographic is changing daily to incorporate more drawdown and some annuitants all with a major struggle to obtain meaningful returns. This PRA lot are worse for pensions than Gordon Brown., at least he only removed the tax benefits not the whole dividend.

Seismic, PRA is fully owned by Bank of England which in turn is owned by HMRC = civil servants= final salary, index linked pensions.

The establishment never harms their own pensions but is fully prepared to damage that of private individuals providing their own via drawdown, shares etc. Soon most of the private sector will only have access to either annuity or drawdown, meaning the damage this outfit inflicts will become reach farther into the economy. The only sector with meaningful pensions is the state meaning they are not in the same boat as those who provide their wages, us. About time these lucrative deals were stopped and they are exposed to the same market forces as the public they serve them we'd get much better regulation.

With regards to the bonuses the BOD took, o referred to the 2019 ones, eg the same fiscal year as the dividend we were supposed to have earned.

Regards

Utter disgrace they paid themselves first and then cowed to the PRA, a bunch of civil servants with lucrative final salary index linked pensions. The saving of the dividend will do nothing much to right the ship, it's a percentage of profits to which the shareholders (owners) are rightly due. Making the right business decisions is what will win the day, for example partnering to provide IFA services is sensible plus they should get their act together on share trading and not leave the market all to HL/II/AJB etc.
If the PRA had suggested removing their bonuses and share awards you would have seen a very different response from these jellyfish in charge.

Against, they can easily afford this, BP and Chevron have. A dividend, whilst sounding huge in £ terms is simply a percentage of profits after costs and the due reward for investors risking their capital and boy is it at risk these days. If the business cannot afford to pay it, then there are big problems somewhere as the BOD are forgetting who actually owns their business, which by and large is the institutions and a very small amount of PI's. Lets face it, when they lose money they go for a capital raise, expecting us all to put our hands in our pockets to maintain our shareholding values.
This dividend will NOT return to it's previous glory - he has already firmly stated "This is the NEW Normal".

Hey Jack, might it be the stage payment on the liberty acquisition last year plus India hedging in the balance sheet? Not sure what will be realised from the mast sale and when that will hit the books either.
Very glad the bod supported investors though and would really like to see Vodafone be rewarded.

Cheers now

Not so sure, damage to the economy will mean people will go for cheaper options due to job loss etc. There's also the increased competition although that will be a while in the making plus they have not done well on quad play and don't have a strong broadband base. However a commendable result and should at least hold the current price hovering around 120ish

Wonder if they may consider an acquisition to broaden their bundle offering, talk talk perhaps or Plusnet?

I can't see them maintaining it with all the other possibilities to spend it on. There is also the universal get out of coronavirus and BT backed by an opinion is the right thing to do insert the circumstances, not that I'm in agreement. My thoughts are to sell a fairly substantial holding and then to re-enter on the drop. Might end in tears but I think the wind is in that direction so might not, decisions

Far from being a multi bagger as someone mentioned this has been a multi debagger I would suggest. Been in the doldrums for years now and management appear pretty clueless still. Better returns from Pharma, Reckitt, Lgen, UlVR complete with dividends, so far.
It's interesting US stocks do everything they can to preserve dividends as they know the opprobrium that comes by not. A few sheckles saved in this manner will not rescue the business or make it well run.

Why not buy Chevron who have to lengths to preserve their dividend?

We are in agreement Richard. When I started work, the final salary schemes were just starting to be dismantled which accelerated due to Brown cancelling the dividend tax status rendering them increasingly unaffordable. 5 years on from being in the workplace, I would estimate half had disappeared, probably more like 90% now I would hazard, many years on?
The net effect is a growing and increased reliance on dividends/share growth but then, along came direct taxation on the dividends at 7.5% above £5K of earnings, replacing the nominal fee of 10% (in effect zero as was considered pre-paid by the company). Then we saw the threshold drop from £5K to £2K and given the current situation I'm pretty certain we will next see a major change in CGT.
Thus earnings from both dividends and trading will be harder including for the big institutions, net result is less to spend in the economy as there is no consideration of 80% pay out given for pensioners unfortunately. Annuitants who have already struck a deal will be ok albeit on a lowly 5%ish or 3%ish if indexed (£30K on a £1,000,000 pot isn't great).
Right i've depressed myself now so am going to bugge* off and go to a virtual pub on Zoom with some mates :o)

Long term what bothers me is the haircut on all the dividends when they do reappear, I can't see them producing 6%. Given 3/4 and rising of companies have done this, it's a big pay cut for pensions, trusts, investors etc. Given annuities, draw down etc rely on these to generate the underlying monies, as do MP's and civil servants pensions (except theirs are paid regardless of shortfall). This will have to feed into the economy on an increasing basis, particularly as draw down, annuity are the only game in town for 90% of retirees, meaning we are getting worse off over time not better.
I think I'm going to look for a job in local government rather than private industry, the pay is now equal or better, you can't get fired and the pension is worth 5x more than money purchase schemes.

Long term what bothers me is the haircut on all the dividends when they do reappear, I can't see them producing 6%. Given 3/4 and rising of companies have done this, it's a big pay cut for pensions, trusts, investors etc. Given annuities, draw down etc rely on these to generate the underlying monies, as do MP's and civil servants pensions (except theirs are paid regardless of shortfall). This will have to feed into the economy on an increasing basis, particularly as draw down, annuity are the only game in town for 90% of retirees, meaning we are getting worse off over time not better.
I think I'm going to look for a job in local government rather than private industry, the pay is now equal or better, you can't get fired and the pension is worth 5x more than money purchase schemes.

Theosus,

No your right, I don't have stats for mortgage issues, these are only just being formed. Evidently 1.2M have already applied for mortgage holidays, we've only just begun that scheme, not solely Lloyds of course. It's not rocket science that forcing a stop to a huge chunk of UK business will mean many SME's are likely to struggle or even not re-open, employment will be significantly affected, doubtless many have mortgages. Then I ask, if the US have provisioned $18.4 Bn for credit card defaults then we will be looking something rotten too, a few £Bn perhaps? My other concern was Lloyds underpins a large car lease book, they seem to throw finance at anyone with minimal checks, perhaps this is a bubble to burst.
Taken together and with no dividend forthcoming, I'm struggling to find the investment case for Lloyds. My biggest worry is the Gov intervention when the guy running PRA is under investigation for being asleep at the wheel of the FCA, and the Lloy board is taking directions from him.

Regards

If JP Morgan are allocating $3.8bn, where's Lloyds provisioning, given its acquisition and presence in this market?
Cannot see Banks rising given the frightful conditions on the road ahead, mortgages, credit cards, car loans, suspension of dividend, there's only one direction of travel for a while yet in my opinion.