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Banks get OK to pay out billions of dollars in dividends

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Big banks are getting ready to reward investors with larger dividend payouts after the Federal Reserve gave them the go-ahead.

The likes of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are able to increase their payouts after the Fed’s stress test deemed them well capitalized. The approved capital plans also include room for share buybacks. One reason for a company to buyback shares is to boost its stock price.

The dividend of JPMorgan — the largest bank in the United States — will rise to $0.90 in the third quarter, from $0.80 before. The bank has also authorized near $30 billion of stock buybacks

Goldman Sachs may spend up to $7 billion on stock repurchases and will raise its dividend payout from $0.85 to $1.25 in the third quarter of the year.

Bank of America’s dividend will climb 20% to $0.18 per share in the third quarter, and its repurchase allowance is just over $30 billion.

Citigroup and Wells Fargo are also upping their payouts to investors come autumn.

Capital One said it wouldn’t change its $0.40 dividend, but plans to buyback $2.2 billion in shares between the third quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020.

The only odd one out is Credit Suisse. While the Fed didn’t object the bank’s plan for higher dividends, it requires the company to “address certain limited weaknesses in its capital planning process.”

The bank said it fully expected to “remediate the issues by the October deadline given,” according to a press release.