The banks were companies, because they needed shareholder capital to sustain their balance sheets.

They are required to maintain shareholder capital at a certain proportion of their risk-weighted assets.

Third, this pause in dividend payments inevitably will create the space for company directors to consider whether paying dividends represents the best use of shareholder capital.

Stripping away all the bank jargon, it has loaned out its shareholder capital 36 times over.

As many as 12 of these 13 clubs were covering their high net losses with re-capitalisation or decrease in shareholder capital.