Fund managers have come out in force to back the idea of UK banks suspending dividend payments to shareholders, emulating their peers in continental Europe in shoring up their finances against the Covid-19 shock.

Martin Gilbert, vice-chair of Standard Life Aberdeen, told the BBC’s Today Programme in an interview on 31 March: “I suspect the regulator will ask [bank] boards to consider their positions carefully, and I think it is sensible to defer dividends now.”