Bank of England scraps bank dividends restrictions

The Bank of England on Tuesday scrapped pandemic-era curbs on dividends from HSBC, Barclays and other top lenders, saying its stress test showed the sector is well capitalized to cope with the fallout from the coronavirus on the economy, Reuters reports.

The BoE's Financial Policy Committee said the "extraordinary guardrails on shareholder distributions are no longer  necessary and judges that the interim results of the 2021 solvency stress test, together with the central outlook, are consistent with this decision."