State Street Corporation Announces Planned Increase to its Quarterly Common Stock Dividend to $0.52 per Share and an Authorization to Purchase up to $2 Billion of its Common Stock

BOSTON--()--State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) today announced that the Federal Reserve did not object to the Company's capital plan, reviewed as part of the 2019 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) process. The capital plan includes a proposed common stock dividend increase and a new common stock purchase program.

“We are pleased with today’s CCAR results. The balance sheet repositioning work that we undertook last year, coupled with our strong capital position, has enabled us to deliver on our priority to significantly increase capital return to our shareholders,” said President and CEO Ron O’Hanley.

State Street’s capital plan proposes an increase to the quarterly common stock dividend to $0.52 per share, from $0.47 per share, beginning in the third quarter of 2019. State Street’s Board of Directors will consider this increase in common stock dividend at its regularly scheduled board meeting in September 2019. Additionally, State Street’s Board has approved a new common stock purchase program, authorizing the purchase of up to $2.0 billion of its common stock that was included in the capital plan. The program will be effective July 1, 2019 and extend through June 30, 2020.

State Street’s third quarter 2019 common stock and other stock dividends, including the declaration, timing and amount, remain subject to consideration and approval by State Street’s Board of Directors at the relevant times. State Street may commence purchases of its common stock under the new authorization beginning July 1, 2019. Stock purchases may be made using various types of transactions, including open-market purchases, accelerated share repurchases or other transactions off the market, and may be made under Rule 10b5-1 trading programs. The timing of stock purchases, type of transaction and number of shares purchased will depend on several factors, including market conditions and State Street’s capital position, its financial performance, the amount of common stock issued as part of employee compensation programs and investment opportunities. The common stock purchase program does not have specific price targets and may be suspended at any time.

About State Street Corporation
State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is a world leading provider of financial services to institutional investors including investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading. With $32.6 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $2.8 trillion* in assets under management as of March 31, 2019, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs approximately 40,000 worldwide. For more information, visit State Street's website at www.statestreet.com.

* Assets under management include the assets of the SPDR® Gold ETF and the SPDR® Long Dollar Gold Trust ETF (approximately $33 billion as of March 31, 2019), for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) serves as marketing agent; SSGA FD and State Street Global Advisors are affiliated.

Forward-Looking Statements
This News Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of United States securities laws, including statements about our goals and expectations regarding our business, financial and capital condition, results of operations, strategies, the financial and market outlook, dividend and stock purchase programs, governmental and regulatory initiatives and developments, and the business environment. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by such forward-looking terminology as “outlook,” “guidance,” “expect,” “priority,” “propose,” “objective,” “intend,” “plan,” “forecast,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “seek,” “may,” “will,” “trend,” “target,” “strategy” and “goal,” or similar statements or variations of such terms. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, are inherently uncertain, are based on current assumptions that are difficult to predict and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed in those statements, and those statements should not be relied upon as representing our expectations or beliefs as of any time subsequent to the time this News Release is first issued.

Important factors that may affect future results and outcomes include, but are not limited to:

  • the financial strength of the counterparties with which we or our clients do business and to which we have investment, credit or financial exposures or to which our clients have such exposures as a result of our acting as agent, including as an asset manager or securities lending agent;
  • increases in the volatility of, or declines in the level of, our NII, changes in the composition or valuation of the assets recorded in our consolidated statement of condition (and our ability to measure the fair value of investment securities) and changes in the manner in which we fund those assets;
  • the volatility of servicing fee, management fee, trading fee and securities finance revenues due to, among other factors, the value of equity and fixed-income markets, market interest and foreign exchange rates, the volume of client transaction activity, competitive pressures in the investment servicing and asset management industries, and the timing of revenue recognition with respect to processing fees and other revenues;
  • the liquidity of the U.S. and international securities markets, particularly the markets for fixed-income securities and inter-bank credits; the liquidity of the assets on our balance sheet and changes or volatility in the sources of such funding, particularly the deposits of our clients; and demands upon our liquidity, including the liquidity demands and requirements of our clients;
  • the level and volatility of interest rates, the valuation of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies in which we record revenue or accrue expenses and the performance and volatility of securities, credit, currency and other markets in the U.S. and internationally; and the impact of monetary and fiscal policy in the U.S. and internationally on prevailing rates of interest and currency exchange rates in the markets in which we provide services to our clients;
  • the credit quality, credit-agency ratings and fair values of the securities in our investment securities portfolio, a deterioration or downgrade of which could lead to other-than-temporary impairment of such securities and the recognition of an impairment loss in our consolidated statement of income;
  • our ability to attract deposits and other low-cost, short-term funding; our ability to manage the level and pricing of such deposits and the relative portion of our deposits that are determined to be operational under regulatory guidelines; and our ability to deploy deposits in a profitable manner consistent with our liquidity needs, regulatory requirements and risk profile;
  • the manner and timing with which the Federal Reserve and other U.S. and non-U.S. regulators implement or reevaluate the regulatory framework applicable to our operations (as well as changes to that framework), including implementation or modification of the Dodd-Frank Act and related stress testing and resolution planning requirements, implementation of international standards applicable to financial institutions, such as those proposed by the Basel Committee and European legislation (such as UCITS V, the Money Market Fund Regulation and MiFID II / MiFIR); among other consequences, these regulatory changes impact the levels of regulatory capital, long-term debt and liquidity we must maintain, acceptable levels of credit exposure to third parties, margin requirements applicable to derivatives, restrictions on banking and financial activities and the manner in which we structure and implement our global operations and servicing relationships. In addition, our regulatory posture and related expenses have been and will continue to be affected by heightened standards and changes in regulatory expectations for global systemically important financial institutions applicable to, among other things, risk management, liquidity and capital planning, resolution planning and compliance programs, as well as changes in governmental enforcement approaches to perceived failures to comply with regulatory or legal obligations;
  • adverse changes in the regulatory ratios that we are, or will be, required to meet, whether arising under the Dodd-Frank Act or implementation of international standards applicable to financial institutions, such as those proposed by the Basel Committee, or due to changes in regulatory positions, practices or regulations in jurisdictions in which we engage in banking activities, including changes in internal or external data, formulae, models, assumptions or other advanced systems used in the calculation of our capital or liquidity ratios that cause changes in those ratios as they are measured from period to period;
  • requirements to obtain the prior approval or non-objection of the Federal Reserve or other U.S. and non-U.S. regulators for the use, allocation or distribution of our capital or other specific capital actions or corporate activities, including, without limitation, acquisitions, investments in subsidiaries, dividends and stock repurchases, without which our growth plans, distributions to shareholders, share repurchase programs or other capital or corporate initiatives may be restricted;
  • changes in law or regulation, or the enforcement of law or regulation, that may adversely affect our business activities or those of our clients or our counterparties, and the products or services that we sell, including, without limitation, additional or increased taxes or assessments thereon, capital adequacy requirements, margin requirements and changes that expose us to risks related to the adequacy of our controls or compliance programs;
  • economic or financial market disruptions in the U.S. or internationally, including those which may result from recessions or political instability; for example, the U.K.'s exit from the European Union or actual or potential changes in trade policy, such as tariffs or bilateral and multilateral trade agreements;
  • our ability to create cost efficiencies through changes in our operational processes and to further digitize our processes and interfaces with our clients, any failure of which, in whole or in part, may among other things, reduce our competitive position, diminish the cost-effectiveness of our systems and processes or provide an insufficient return on our associated investment;
  • our ability to promote a strong culture of risk management, operating controls, compliance oversight, ethical behavior and governance that meets our expectations and those of our clients and our regulators, and the financial, regulatory, reputational and other consequences of our failure to meet such expectations;
  • the impact on our compliance and controls enhancement programs associated with the appointment of a monitor under the deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and compliance consultant appointed under a settlement with the SEC, including the potential for such monitor and compliance consultant to require changes to our programs or to identify other issues that require substantial expenditures, changes in our operations, payments to clients or reporting to U.S. authorities;
  • the results of our review of our billing practices, including additional findings or amounts we may be required to reimburse clients, as well as potential consequences of such review, including damage to our client relationships or our reputation and adverse actions or penalties imposed by governmental authorities;
  • our ability to expand our use of technology to enhance the efficiency, accuracy and reliability of our operations and our dependencies on information technology; to replace and consolidate systems, particularly those relying upon older technology, and to adequately incorporate resiliency and business continuity into our systems management; to implement robust management processes into our technology development and maintenance programs; and to control risks related to use of technology, including cyber-crime and inadvertent data disclosures;
  • our ability to address threats to our information technology infrastructure and systems (including those of our third-party service providers), the effectiveness of our and our third party service providers' efforts to manage the resiliency of the systems on which we rely, controls regarding the access to, and integrity of, our and our clients' data, and complexities and costs of protecting the security of such systems and data;
  • the results of, and costs associated with, governmental or regulatory inquiries and investigations, litigation and similar claims, disputes, or civil or criminal proceedings;
  • changes or potential changes in the amount of compensation we receive from clients for our services, and the mix of services provided by us that clients choose;
  • the large institutional clients on which we focus are often able to exert considerable market influence and have diverse investment activities, and this, combined with strong competitive market forces, subjects us to significant pressure to reduce the fees we charge, to potentially significant changes in our AUC/A or our AUM in the event of the acquisition or loss of a client, in whole or in part, and to potentially significant changes in our revenue in the event a client re-balances or changes its investment approach, re-directs assets to lower- or higher-fee asset classes or changes the mix of products or services that it receives from us;
  • the potential for losses arising from our investments in sponsored investment funds;
  • the possibility that our clients will incur substantial losses in investment pools for which we act as agent, the possibility of significant reductions in the liquidity or valuation of assets underlying those pools and the potential that clients will seek to hold us liable for such losses; and the possibility that our clients or regulators will assert claims that our fees, with respect to such investment products, are not appropriate;
  • our ability to anticipate and manage the level and timing of redemptions and withdrawals from our collateral pools and other collective investment products;
  • the credit agency ratings of our debt and depositary obligations and investor and client perceptions of our financial strength;
  • adverse publicity, whether specific to us or regarding other industry participants or industry-wide factors, or other reputational harm;
  • our ability to control operational risks, data security breach risks and outsourcing risks, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, the possibility of errors in the quantitative models we use to manage our business and the possibility that our controls will prove insufficient, fail or be circumvented;
  • changes or potential changes to the competitive environment, due to, among other things, regulatory and technological changes, the effects of industry consolidation and perceptions of us, as a suitable service provider or counterparty;
  • our ability to complete acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures, including, without limitation, our ability to obtain regulatory approvals, the ability to arrange financing as required and the ability to satisfy closing conditions;
  • the risks that our acquired businesses, including, without limitation, our acquisition of Charles River Development, and joint ventures will not achieve their anticipated financial, operational and product innovation benefits or will not be integrated successfully, or that the integration will take longer than anticipated; that expected synergies will not be achieved or unexpected negative synergies or liabilities will be experienced; that client and deposit retention goals will not be met; that other regulatory or operational challenges will be experienced; and that disruptions from the transaction will harm our relationships with our clients, our employees or regulators;
  • our ability to integrate Charles River Development's front office software solutions with our middle and back office capabilities to develop a front-to-middle-to-back office platform that is competitive, generates revenues in line with our expectations and meets our clients' requirements;
  • our ability to recognize evolving needs of our clients and to develop products that are responsive to such trends and profitable to us; the performance of and demand for the products and services we offer; and the potential for new products and services to impose additional costs on us and expose us to increased operational risk;
  • our ability to grow revenue, manage expenses, attract and retain highly skilled people and raise the capital necessary to achieve our business goals and comply with regulatory requirements and expectations;
  • changes in accounting standards and practices; and
  • the impact of the U.S. tax legislation enacted in 2017, and changes in tax legislation and in the interpretation of existing tax laws by U.S. and non-U.S. tax authorities that affect the amount of taxes due.

Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by any forward-looking statements are set forth in our 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K and our subsequent SEC filings. We encourage investors to read these filings, particularly the sections on risk factors, for additional information with respect to any forward-looking statements and prior to making any investment decision. The forward-looking statements contained in this News Release should not be relied on as representing our expectations or beliefs as of any time subsequent to the time this News Release is first issued, and we do not undertake efforts to revise those forward-looking statements to reflect events after that time.

Contacts

Ilene Fiszel Bieler
+1 617-664-3477

Marc Hazelton
+1 617-513-9439

Contacts

Ilene Fiszel Bieler
+1 617-664-3477

Marc Hazelton
+1 617-513-9439