The UK's top banks have said they would suspend dividend payments after pressure from the regulator, saving their capital as a buffer against expected losses from the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered and the British arm of Spain's Santander have all halted payouts.
The lenders had been due to pay out over £8 billion between them in 2019 dividends, with HSBC the biggest payer at $4.2 billion.
The move came in response to a request from the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA), which also asked banks and insurers not to pay senior staff bonuses this year.
The British lenders said they would not pay interim dividends for 2020 and scrapped planned 2019 payouts, but held off announcing changes to their executive pay policies.
The PRA said banks entered the epidemic, which has put Britain into lockdown, with strong capital positions, enough to withstand a severe UK and global recession.
"The bank has a strong capital base, but we think it is right and prudent, for the many businesses and people that we support, to take these steps now," Barclays Chairman Nigel Higgins said.
Banks pay out dividends as a means of rewarding shareholders and disposing of excess profits, but they have the option to retain the earnings instead to preserve their capital levels.
The statements from British lenders come after the European Central Bank last week asked euro zone lenders to skip dividend payments and share buybacks until October at the earliest, and use their profits to support the economy.
Several of Europe's largest lenders, including UniCredit and Societe Generale, have already announced they will hold off paying 2019 dividends for now.
AIB and Bank of Ireland also said they would freeze their dividends for 2019.
However, there are some hold outs. Swiss banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse have both said they plan to press ahead with 2019 dividends despite their home regulator urging caution over payouts.
The move to scrap 2019 shareholder distributions is expected to free up capital that banks can instead lend to businesses and consumers rocked by the coronavirus pandemic.
But some analysts believe cancelling dividends could actually harm the supply of credit to the real economy.
The European Union's banking watchdog also said that banks should be "conservative" in how they award bonuses to preserve capital and keep lending during the coronavirus pandemic.
However it stopped short of calling on banks to stop bonuses altogether.
Italy's UniCredit and Spain's BBVA have both said this week that their top management will waive their 2020 bonuses.
Standard Chartered signalled in a memo on Monday that the bank would likely cut its 2020 executive payouts.
PRA Chief Executive Sam Woods also wrote to heads of insurers, saying they should pay "close attention" to the need to protect policyholders and maintain safety and soundness when considering bonuses or dividends.
HSBC signalled a gloomy first-quarter earnings season for British banks, warning in its statement that it would see bad loans rising and revenues falling as the economic impact of the pandemic hits.
