Bank of America’s board declared a regular quarterly dividend of 32 cents a share late Wednesday, October 21, and the money is scheduled to land on Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24. Anyone listed as a holder of record at the close of Friday, December 4 gets paid. For one share that is 32 cents; for 500 shares it is $160.
How the December 24 payment works
The bank announced the dividend from Charlotte, North Carolina, at 4:15 p.m. Eastern. Two dates matter to a shareholder. December 4 is the record date, when the bank takes its list of owners, and December 24 is the day the cash is payable.
Bank of America posted the same terms in its own newsroom. Nothing in the announcement asks a shareholder to do anything. Holders in a brokerage account normally see the cash arrive there, and the dividend is the common stock’s regular quarterly payout, not a special one.
At 32 cents a quarter, the annual rate comes to $1.28 a share. A retiree holding 1,000 shares would collect $320 on December 24 and $1,280 over four quarters at this rate. Each quarter’s payout needs its own board vote, so the $1.28 is a rate and not a promise.
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The $2.2 billion the bank paid in common dividends last quarter works out to 32 cents on roughly 6.9 billion shares. That is arithmetic from the release’s rounded totals, not a share count the bank stated. It shows how large the dividend bill is for a company with this many owners.
Four cents more than a year ago
The payout was 28 cents a share in the third quarter of 2025 and was 32 cents in the third quarter of 2026, according to the bank’s earnings release. That is a 4-cent step, or about 14%, and it lifts the yearly rate from $1.12 to $1.28.
Against the quarter’s earnings, the dividend looks well covered. Diluted earnings were 91 cents a share in the third quarter, so a 32-cent dividend takes roughly 35% of what the bank earned per share. Adjusted earnings were $1.08 a share, which would put the share closer to 30%.
Dividends cost the bank $2.2 billion in the quarter. Share buybacks cost another $6.0 billion, bringing capital returned to shareholders to $8.3 billion. The release did not give a year-earlier figure for that total.
A quarter with a $1.2 billion charge
Net income for the third quarter was $6.9 billion, down 17% from $8.3 billion a year earlier. The bank says that figure includes a $1.2 billion regulatory settlement charge. Without it, adjusted net income was $8.1 billion.
Revenue, net of interest expense, rose 3% to $30.0 billion from $29.0 billion. Period-end loans and leases reached $1,251.3 billion, up from $1,165.9 billion, and period-end deposits were $2,038.8 billion, up from $2,002.2 billion.
Chief executive Brian Moynihan said in the release that “the team delivered organic growth, deepening client relationships and adding new ones.” The release said little more about the dividend itself.
Averages tell the same story. Average deposits were $2.02 trillion, up 2%, and average loans and leases were $1.23 trillion, up 6%. Period-end loans grew faster than deposits, 7% against 2%, so the bank lent out more of what it held than it did a year ago.
One number to watch for anyone who owns the stock is the bank’s capital cushion. Its common equity tier 1 ratio, a measure regulators use to judge how much loss a bank can absorb, was 10.9%. That compares with 11.6% a year earlier and 11.2% in the second quarter.
The bank returned more than it earned in the quarter. Capital returned of $8.3 billion is about 120%% of the $6.9 billion in net income, and about 102%% of the $8.1 billion adjusted figure. Buybacks of $6.0 billion were nearly three times the dividend bill.
That helps explain the capital ratio. The 10.9%% common equity tier 1 ratio sits 0.7 points below the year-earlier level of 11.6%%. The dividend is the smaller piece of the payout, and the share count it is paid on shrinks as the bank buys stock back.
The 4-cent raise is also faster than the business grew. The dividend rose about 14%% while revenue rose 3%%, and diluted earnings per share fell from $1.04 to $0.91. The 32 cents is therefore a larger slice of earnings than the 28 cents was.
The preferred holders wait until January
The same announcement covered a second payout. The 7% Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, Series B, gets $1.75 a share, payable January 25, 2027, to holders of record on January 11, 2027.
Preferred shares are a different security from the common stock that most small investors hold. Series B holders get a fixed $1.75 a quarter, which is $7.00 a share over a year. The common dividend is the one the board can raise or trim.
Bank of America describes itself as serving more than 69 million clients in the U.S., with about 3,500 retail financial centers and about 15,000 ATMs. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BAC.
Counting on a December 24 deposit?
A dividend arrives when the board says it does, and a holder who budgets around December 24 is counting on a vote that has to be repeated every quarter. Retirees who lean on income like this often leave other money unclaimed because each program has its own form and its own cutoff.
The Benefits Checklist covers 11 benefit programs, including Medicare Savings Programs, Extra Help and SNAP, and lays out the 2026 income limits for each. It also carries a 50-state phone directory and a printable application tracker, so the numbers to call sit next to the dates to hit.
Get the 11-program Benefits Checklist with the 2026 income limits →
More Financial Reading
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- 21 Ways Retirees Can Raise $1,000 Fast Without a Job
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
