I think PE981's telling is closer to my recollection of what was...

I think PE981's telling is closer to my recollection of what was happening at the time of the Cap Raise. From memory NAB was the first to move. They had the Feds, APRA and ASIC all standing on the panic button and share prices everywhere had taken a gigantic nose dive. They took a decision with limited data and absolutely none of the 20/20 hindsight we all have now. They raised capital and paid a much-reduced dividend. At the time WBC paid no dividend at all - as a Mum/Dad Selfie, let me tell you THAT hurt a lot more than NAB's cap raise. And now less than 18 months later, they have a lot of cash and are looking to deploy it in a way that does not erode confidence. How would it look if, after raising cap in June last year, they were to do substantial cap return now? I think people would be giving them an even bigger caning on pages such as this than they are even now. So I think I can see some logic to the current course of action. I am also heartened by comments in this stream about it making sense to increase the loan book at, or close to, the bottom of the interest rate cycle. What does make me a little uneasy is the investment in "Old Banking" when much of the noise on the airwaves right now is about banking disruption and the need to adopt positions to face lighter and more agile competition. And while my s.p. and maybe dividends will improve as a result of issued shares reduction from the buy-back, that buy-back is happening at almost twice the price at which many of those shares were issued. It's hard not to see that as wealth-destruction. I think I might have preferred to have seen (against a background of improved dividends) the capital used to improve competitiveness in "New Banking" and for any buy-back to either be off-market or subject to a price cap. Stay safe folks.