What is interesting is that you are not currently hamstrung at all in finding real banks with real dividend yields.  After all, what if the government delays its decision?  We recently ran a feature showing the highest yielding banks of all regions and all segments which had a 3.0% yield or higher, a market cap of $1 billion, and then which had earnings power to assure that these steady payout can continue.  If we carve these out by region from our screen of more than fifteen winners, these are five of the top payers by region are M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH), and Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK).

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $87.58 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $2.80/year generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $17.60 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $7.7 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $1.00 per year generates a yield of 5.6%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) operates as Frost Bank and as of a year ago it had 110 financial centers in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio regions of Texas.

• Share price of $57.60 compares to 52-week range of $50.04 to $62.59
• Market Cap is $3.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $3.52 EPS and $886.4 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.1%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and was raised throughout the recession.

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH) was surprising to see considering the Hawaiian economy of the recession. It is the holding company for Bank of Hawaii and as of a year ago it operated 71 Hawaii branch locations and 12 branches in the Pacific Islands.

• Share price of $46.60 compares to 52-week range of $42.59 to $54.10
• Market Cap is $2.25 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $2.96 EPS and $585.56 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.8%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and raised during 2008

Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK) is the bank holding company for Trustmark National Bank in Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas and as of a year ago it operated 140 full-service branches and 17 limited-service branches.

• Share price of $22.27 compares to 52-week range of $18.83 to $26.88
• Market Cap is $1.42 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.56 EPS and $511.21 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.92/year generates a yield of about 4.0%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and has been static since 2007

You can bookmark our site for the DAILY DIVIDEND AT 11:00 AM EST each day, although it technically at 11:01 AM EST.

JON C. OGG

We wanted to take a look at “all those other banks” out there that might have avoided the trouble that the big money center banks got into.  The screen pointed to M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK), People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT), First Niagara Financial Group (NASDAQ: FNFG), Astoria Financial Corporation (NYSE: AF), Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NWBI), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI), FirstMerit Corporation (NASDAQ: FMER), Park National Corp. (NYSE: PRK), Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK), Hancock Holding Co. (NASDAQ: HBHC), F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) and Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH).  In Canada there is Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM).It turns out that there are still many banks around the country that do pay higher dividends at above-market yields.

Our screen boiled down to a simple process.  We took a 3.0% Yield hurdle because that is what was implied as a future yield by JPMorgan this week if you use forward earning projections.  To avoid the micro-regional risks and to avoid the “so small no one cares if they fail” we also made a market cap hurdle of $1.0 billion.  After this we took a look at forward earnings expectations and also looked in the past to see what happened to their common stock dividends during the Great Recession when bank failure risks were systematic.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $89.85 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.76 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.70/quarter generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY) is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank and it had 197 full-service banking branches a year ago located throughout New Jersey and New York.

• Share price of $13.51 compares to 52-week range of $12.33 to $16.19
• Market Cap is $2.2 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.84 EPS and $550.98 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.18/quarter generates a yield of about 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was not effectively interrupted at all and it continued to pay a 5% stock dividend.

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $18.92 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $8.24 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.25/quarter generates a yield of 5.4%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK) is the bank holding company for Hudson City Savings Bank and as of a year ago it had 95 branches located in 17 counties throughout the State of New Jersey.

• Share price of $11.40 compares to 52-week range of $10.80 to $14.75
• Market Cap is $5.6 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.77 EPS and $966.6 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.15/quarter generates a yield of 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was actually raised during 2009 when others were eliminating or cutting the dividend.  The dividend has been this rate since mid-2009.

Michael E. O’Neill, 62, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH).

Anthony M. Santomero, PH.D., 62, most recently a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, served as the ninth President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia from 2000-2006.

William S. Thompson, Jr., 63, retired in 2008 as CEO of PIMCO, the giant fixed income investment management company.

Citi has 10 of its current 15 board members standing for re-election.  Of those five not up for re-election, 2 are retiring and 3 have chosen to not stand for re-election.  Chairman Richard Parsons said that the board will reach 14 if these nominees are elected, and noted that the board will consider future additions.

JON C. OGG