Stockholders' equity

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Stockholders' Equity Note

Stockholders' Equity

Note 18 – Stockholders’ equity

On January 23, 2017, the Corporation’s Board of Directors approved an increase in the Company’s quarterly common stock dividend from $0.15 per share to $0.25 per share. During the quarterended March 31,2017, the Corporation declared dividends on its common stock of $ 25.6million, which were paid on April 3, 2017, and completed a $75 million privately negotiated accelerated share repurchase transaction (“ASR”). As part of this transaction, the Corporation received 1,847,372 shares and recognized $79.5 million in treasury stock, based on the stock’s spot price, offset by a $4.5 million adjustment to capital surplus, resulting from the decline in the Corporation’s stock price during the term of the ASR.

BPPR statutory reserve

The Banking Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Ricorequires that a minimum of 10% of BPPR’s net income for the year be transferred to a statutory reserve account until such statutory reserve equals the total of paid-in capital on common and preferred stock. Any losses incurred by a bank must first be charged to retained earnings and then to the reserve fund. Amounts credited to the reserve fund may not be used to pay dividends without the prior consent of the Puerto Rico Commissioner of Financial Institutions. The failure to maintain sufficient statutory reserves would preclude BPPR from paying dividends. BPPR’s statutory reserve fund amounted to $513 million at March 31,2017 (December 31, 2016 - $513 million). There were no transfers between the statutory reserve account and the retained earnings account during the quarters ended March 31,2017and March 31,2016.