Standard Chartered Bank has suspended payment of the Preference Share Dividend for September 2020 announced earlier.

This is in reference to the Bank of Ghana’s notice to Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions titled “Suspension of distribution of dividends for the financial year 2019 and 2020, dated April 20, 2020.”

The dividend was to be paid on Wednesday, 30th September 2020.

The preference shareholders of Stanchart are to enjoy a dividend of GHS0.0471 per preference share in respect of the dividend period 31 March 2020 to 30 September 2020.

The dividend rate is however 18.1519%.

Preference shares, more commonly referred to as preferred stock, are shares of a company’s stock with dividends that are paid out to shareholders before common stock dividends are issued.

According to the bank, all preference shareholders registered in the books of Stanchart at the close of business on Friday, 21 August 2020 will qualify for the dividend.

The Register of preference shareholders will, however, be closed from Monday, 24 August 2020 to Wednesday, 26 August 2020.

The ex-dividend date has, however, been set as of Wednesday, 19 August 2020.

Consequently, an investor purchasing SCB preference shares before this date will be entitled to the dividend. However, an investor buying SCB preference shares on or after Wednesday, 19 August 2020 will not be entitled to the dividend.

According to the 2019 full-year financial result of Stanchart, profit went up 33% to GHS281 million.