Out Fox The $treet

Pre financial crisis, banks provided some of the most consistent dividends, but the crisis for the most part wiped out the money returned to shareholders. Even the better banking stocks like JPMorgan ( JPM ) only maintained small dividends of $0.20 or 0.4% on an annual basis. Basically just enough to claim they pay a dividend and not much more. Buybacks were all but outlawed by the regulators. On Friday, the market got news from some of the large banks that the government will allow them to start returning capital to shareholders. Considering our focus on Net Payout Yields (combination of dividends and net stock buybacks) we wanted to analyze the forecasted payouts of the top banks to see which ones will now be at attractive yields.  See the rest of the article at Seeking Alpha . 

Regions Financial (RF) hasn't had a huge reaction to such speculation because it's been a common myth so far that the regional banks would be buyout targets. So far nothing has happened in this sector so the market has been lulled to sleep. Likely on the new financial regulation in the US not to mention Basel III has limited the desire of banks to go on acquisition sprees. This might change in the near future so the speculation by Credit Sussie is likely logical. After all the Canadian Banks such as Toronto Dominion (TD) and Bank of Montreal (BMO) are relatively strong and would likely relish the opportunity to buy an American bank on the cheap. The price is likely a sticking point. Canadian Banks aren't likely to pay up and regional banks such as RF won't part with shares on the cheap. RF currently trades anywhere from 20-50% below book value depending on what number you use. Are Canadian Banks willing to pay a multiple of BV? The analyst mentions the option of me...