On 28 July 2020, the PRA announced that it would undertake an assessment of firms’ distribution plans beyond the end of 2020 in Quarter 4 2020. The assessment will be based on the current and projected capital positions of the banks and will take into account the level of uncertainty on the future path of the economy, market conditions, and capital trajectories prevailing at that time.

On 31 March 2020 the PRA issued a statement welcoming the decisions by the boards of large UK banks to suspend dividends and buybacks on ordinary shares until the end of 2020, and set out its expectation that banks would not pay cash bonuses to senior staff.