Bank of Valletta has announced it will not pay out a dividend to shareholders for the financial year 2019, withdrawing a proposal made at its Annual General Meeting to pay out a final gross dividend of 2c6 per share.

The bank said that in line with recommendations by the European Central Bank, BOV it will reassess the situation in the first quarter of 2021.

BOV’s original proposal of paying a final gross dividend of 2c6 per share, or a net dividend of 1c7 per share, would have made for a total gross dividend for the year of €15,384,615.

At a later stage, BOV announced it would make the dividend pay-out conditional to the situation in Malta once instability surrounding COVID-19 disappears, the earliest of which would be October 2020, in line with ECB recommendations.

On Tuesday, the bank said it had considered the situation and the ECB’s subsequent 31st July recommendation, which states that until 1st January, no dividends are to be paid out while no irrevocable commitment for similar pay-outs should be undertaken by credit institutions for the financial years 2019 and 2020, and thus it withdraw its recommendation.