The insurance group has for many years had a progressive dividend policy where its strategy has been to have a dividend payout of 40-50% of operating earnings per share through the cycle. Last year, the group increased its dividend by 4.1%.

Davy assumes a dividend will resume in 2016, but at a lower level. It expects a dividend for the full year of 2016 of 21.7c, significantly down on last year’s (2014) dividend of 51c/share.

FBD’s decision to forgo an interim 2015 dividend, saving about €6m, is a measure of the uncertain outlook. The board will make a decision on any final dividend once the 2015 financial results are known.