Product Market Competition, Regulation and Dividend Payout Policy of Malaysian Banks

This paper investigates the impact of the product market competition, regulations on the dividend policies of We find significant differences in the payout of the banks categorized as selling a non-interest based banking products and mix of both interest and non-interest based banking products. We find that the decision to increase dividends is significantly related to earnings, and the decision to cut dividend is significantly related to the changes in the non-performing loans, corporate and real estate sectors loans ratio and earnings loses. Research findings have implication for the regulators of the banks. The research provides a clear link between banks' portfolio choice and earnings that have implications for the dividends in the emerging markets.