Czech premier wants banks to pay part of dividends to state fund
The largest banks in the country are foreign-owned and have often faced criticism for their distributions flowing abroad
Prague — Czech banks should pay up to 20% of their dividends into a new state development fund, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday, as his government sought new revenue streams against a backdrop of slowing growth. The country’s banks have been strong profit drivers for their mostly Western parents, with their combined earnings rising 9% to 82.1-billion koruna ($3.58bn) in 2018. However, they have often faced criticism for dividends flowing abroad. The largest Czech banks are all foreign-owned. CSOB is held by Belgium's KBC, Ceska Sporitelna is part of Austria’s Erste Group, and Komercni Banka is majority-owned by France’s Société Générale. With economic growth predicted to slow and budget spending rising, the Czech Republic’s public finances are expected to fall back into deficit for the first time since 2015 from 2020. Babis has rejected introducing a sector tax on banks’ assets, which his junior governing partner the Social Democrats had proposed to raise budget revenue...
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