10 Banks With Biggest Payouts

Wall Street loves stocks whose prices are supported by strong dividends. This is especially true for the banking industry, where profits are under pressure from the narrow spread between short-term rates paid on deposits and long-term rates collected on loans and securities investments. Many bank holding companies continue to pay generous dividends, even as their earnings decline significantly, to keep shareholders happy.

This makes sense as long as a bank is well-capitalized and expects its earnings to recover within a reasonable amount of time. Who wants to rock the boat and push down the stock price? But even banks with a strong balance sheet can't keep this up for too long. So if you're thinking about buying a bank stock on the basis of its dividend, it's important to do your research.

Below is a list of 10 banks with actively traded stocks that have the highest dividend payout ratios. (We excluded banks that are publicly listed but have little trading volume because they are so closely held.) They were screened from regulatory filings for holding companies with more than $500 million in total assets.

Most of the companies on this list pay dividends sufficient to make their common stock yields very attractive. Considering the low returns on income-producing investments these days, a bank holding company stock yielding more than 5% , or 6% in the case of First Commonwealth Financial (FCF), seems like a steal.

Paying Up To Keep Shareholders Happy These banks have held dividends steady even when earnings decline.