Restrictions on Subsidiary Dividends and Loans or Advances

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Banking and Thrift, Other Disclosure [Abstract]

Restrictions on Subsidiary Dividends and Loans or Advances

Restrictions on Subsidiary Dividends and Loans or Advances

Various federal and state statutory provisions limit the amount of dividends the Bank can pay to the Corporation without regulatory approval. Approval of the Federal Reserve Board is required for payment of any dividend by a state-chartered bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System if the total of all dividends declared by the bank in any calendar year would exceed the total of its retained net income (as defined by regulatory agencies) for that year combined with its retained net income for the preceding two years. In addition, a state member bank may not pay a dividend in an amount greater than its “undivided profits,” as defined, without regulatory and stockholder approval.

Under Illinois law, an Illinois state bank, prior to paying a dividend, must carry over to surplus at least one-tenth of its net profits since the date of the declaration of the last preceding dividend, until the bank’s surplus is equal to its capital. In addition, an Illinois state bank may not pay any dividend in an amount greater than its net profits then on hand, after deduction of losses and bad debts (defined as debts due to a state bank on which interest is past due and unpaid for a period of six months or more, unless the same are well secured and in the process of collection).

The Bank is also prohibited under federal law from paying any dividends if the Bank is undercapitalized or if the payment of the dividends would cause the Bank to become undercapitalized. In addition, the federal regulatory agencies are authorized to prohibit a bank or bank holding company from engaging in an unsafe or unsound banking practice. The payment of dividends could, depending on the financial condition of the Bank, be deemed to constitute an unsafe or unsound practice. The Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III impose additional restrictions on the ability of banking institutions to pay dividends (e.g., the Corporation may pay dividends only in accordance with the capital plan rules and capital adequacy standards of the Federal Reserve). Our Bank subsidiary could have declared additional dividends of approximately $1.5 billion at December 31, 2023, without obtaining prior regulatory approval.

Under federal law, financial transactions by the Bank, the Corporation’s insured banking subsidiary, with the Corporation and its affiliates that are in the form of loans or extensions of credit, investments, guarantees, derivative transactions, repurchase agreements, securities lending transactions or purchases of assets, are restricted. These transactions must be on terms and conditions that are, or in good faith would be, offered to non-affiliated companies (i.e. on terms not less favorable to the Bank than market terms). Further, extensions of credit must be secured fully with qualifying collateral and are limited to 10% of the Bank’s capital and surplus for transactions with a single affiliate and to 20% of the Bank’s capital and surplus with all affiliates. Other state and federal laws may limit the transfer of funds by the Corporation’s banking subsidiaries to the Corporation and certain of its affiliates.