AI-assisted research summary: Bank and trust company directors may declare dividends only after required charge-offs and surplus funding, and banks may not pay dividends when profits are a loss, capital would fall below required levels, or the bank is imminently insolvent.
658.37 Dividends and surplus.—(1) The directors of any bank or trust company, after charging off bad debts, depreciation, and other worthless assets if any, and making provision for reasonably anticipated future losses on loans and other assets, may quarterly, semiannually, or annually declare a dividend of so much of the aggregate of the net profits of that period combined with its retained net profits of the preceding 2 years as they shall judge expedient, and, with the approval of the office, any bank or trust company may declare a dividend from retained net profits which accrued prior to the preceding 2 years, but each bank or trust company shall, before the declaration of a dividend on its common stock, carry 20 percent of its net profits for such preceding period as is covered by the dividend to its surplus fund, until the same shall at least equal the amount of its common and preferred stock then issued and outstanding. No bank or trust company shall declare any dividend at any time at which its net income from the current year combined with the retained net income from the preceding 2 years is a loss or which would cause the capital accounts of the bank or trust company to fall below the minimum amount required by law, regulation, order, or any written agreement with the office or a state or federal regulatory agency. A bank or trust company may, however, split up or divide the issued shares of capital stock into a greater number of shares without increasing or decreasing the capital accounts of the bank or trust company, and such shall not be construed to be a dividend within the meaning of this section. (2) A bank that has been determined to be imminently insolvent may not pay a dividend.