Restrictions on Cash, Dividends and Lending Activities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Equity [Abstract]

Restrictions on Cash, Dividends and Lending Activities

3. Restrictions on Cash, Dividends and Lending Activities

Federal law requires a depository institution to maintain a prescribed amount of cash or deposit reserve balances with its Federal Reserve Bank. KeyBank maintained average reserve balances aggregating $243 million in 2015 to fulfill these requirements.

Capital distributions from KeyBank and other subsidiaries are our principal source of cash flows for paying dividends on our common and preferred shares, servicing our debt, and financing corporate operations. Federal banking law limits the amount of capital distributions that a bank can make to its holding company without prior regulatory approval. A national bank’s dividend-paying capacity is affected by several factors, including net profits (as defined by statute) for the previous two calendar years and for the current year, up to the date the dividend is declared.

During 2015, KeyBank paid $1 billion in dividends to KeyCorp. At January 1, 2016, KeyBank had regulatory capacity to pay $553 million in dividends to KeyCorp without prior regulatory approval. At December 31, 2015, KeyCorp held $2.7 billion in short-term investments, which can be used to pay dividends to shareholders, service debt, and finance corporate operations.

As indicated in the “Supervision and Regulation” section of Item 1 of this report under the heading “Bank transactions with affiliates,” federal law and regulation also restricts loans and advances from bank subsidiaries to their parent companies (and to nonbank subsidiaries of their parent companies), and requires those transactions to be secured.