This research was intended to shed new light over the debate whether banks are different from non-banks. Our main focus is to determine the main factors that influence the dividend policy in banking institutions and to compare the findings to theories and other models developed for non-banking companies.

Based in the literature review, we selected a set of variables that have influence on dividend payment in other economies and tested them to predict dividend payments of a sample with 181 financial institutions that have operated in the Brazilian market during 2001 and 2006. We have also compared the dividend payment pattern of this banking sample to a sample of non-banks.

The regression models confirm that the profitability is the main driver of banking dividend policy in Brazil. Similar evidence was presented for non-banks by Lintner in 1956, based in the North American manufacture industry.

The comparison between banking and non-banking companies shows that banks are not different from other industries, although more specific tests of variance between groups, as well as tests in different countries, will be needed to permanently establish this idea.