US banks doled out record-high dividends in 2022, paying out an aggregate $59.01 billion industrywide.

Dividend payouts at US banks in the prior year eclipsed the previous high of $55.30 billion set in 2020, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The industrywide total dividend payout for 2022 was up 8.0% from the previous year and 6.7% from the old record in 2020. The median dividend payout ratio at US banks increased by 322 basis points year over year to 24.32%.

Top dividend-paying banks

JPMorgan Chase & Co. topped the charts, paying a hefty $13.56 billion in dividends in 2022, an increase of 5.5% year over year. The company's 2022 dividend payout ratio was 33.1%.

Among the largest four US banks, Wells Fargo & Co.'s dividend payout in 2022 had the steepest year-over-year increase at 45.9%, paying out $5.29 billion.

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Citigroup Inc. was the only bank among the Big Four to register a year-over-year decrease in dividend payout during 2022. With a dividend ratio of 29.1%, the company paid out $5.00 billion, down 3.8% from a year ago.

Out of the top 20 banks with the highest dividend payouts in 2022, Webster Financial Corp. posted the steepest year-over-year increase. The company, which completed its merger of equals with Sterling Bancorp on Jan. 31, 2022, paid $261.5 million in dividends, an increase of 71.3% year over year.

Apart from Citigroup, Comerica Inc. and First Horizon Corp. were the only other banks in the top 20 to pay a lower dividend compared to the year-ago period.

Comerica's total dividend payout was $376.0 million, down 4.1% from 2021. The bank's 2022 dividend payout ratio was 32.1%.

First Horizon, which is being acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank, paid a total dividend of $367.0 million, down 2.7% from a year ago, with a payout ratio of 39.2%.