Banker & Tradesman photo / file

Berkshire Bank will pay a quarterly dividend in the fourth quarter, keeping the same reduced amount it had paid last quarter.

Berkshire’s board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per common share to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 17, payable on Dec. 29, according to a statement released yesterday. The dividend is half what the bank paid in the first part of 2020.

The board in January had increased the dividend by 4 percent, from $0.23 to $0.24 per common share. The amount per share was then cut in half in the third quarter after the bank made a $554 million goodwill impairment charge related to a decade-long focus on acquisitions, creating a $549 million second quarter loss. Like other banks, Berkshire has also had to increase provisions for credit losses because of the pandemic.

“This reduction of our dividend brings our yield and payout more in line with peers and with our historic ranges and will help to preserve our strong capital foundation to help us continue to support our customers and communities in these challenging times,” Sean Gray, Berkshire’s acting CEO and president, said in a statement in August announcing the dividend cut. “It also positions us to accelerate shareholder distributions in the form of both dividends and stock buybacks when economic and public health conditions recover in the future.”

Because of the 2020 losses, Berkshire must now receive approval from the Massachusetts Division of Banks for shareholder dividends intended by the bank’s board and nonobjection from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for dividends intended by the parent company’s board, according to Berkshire’s quarterly report.

Berkshire in the third quarter had also cut in half its dividend for preferred stock. The outstanding preferred stock has since converted to common stock, Berkshire said in an SEC 8-K report, and the bank no longer has preferred stock.