BNY’s $1 Billion Series F Preferred Redemption Takes Effect

BNY’s previously announced redemption of all outstanding Series F Noncumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock reaches its stated redemption date on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. The bank is retiring 10,000 Series F preferred shares and all 1 million corresponding depositary shares, which are no longer deemed outstanding and stop accruing dividends on and after the redemption date.

The cash arrives one day later. Each depositary share is being redeemed for $1,000, equivalent to $100,000 for each underlying preferred share, putting the aggregate redemption payment at $1 billion. BNY scheduled that payment for Monday, Sept. 21, the first business day after the redemption date.

Cash payment follows on Sept. 21

BNY announced the redemption on Aug. 20 and specified the distinction between the Sept. 20 redemption date and the Sept. 21 payment date. The company said all of the depositary shares are held in book-entry form through The Depository Trust Company and will be redeemed under DTC procedures. Investors who hold beneficial interests through a bank or broker are directed to that institution for information about receiving the redemption payment.

The $1,000 redemption amount does not include the final Series F dividend. BNY’s board separately declared a dividend of $2,312.50 per Series F preferred share, equivalent to $23.125 per depositary share, for the dividend period ending in September. That dividend is also payable Sept. 21, but only to holders of record on Sept. 5. Keeping the two payments separate matters because the dividend follows the record-date rules, while the redemption payment applies to the securities being retired.

Once the redemption date is reached, Series F no longer remains an outstanding preferred-stock series for dividend-accrual purposes. That is the substantive change taking effect on Sept. 20 even though the cash settlement occurs the next business day. Computershare Inc. and Computershare Trust Company, N.A. serve jointly as depositary, while Computershare Trust Company is also the transfer agent and registrar for the preferred shares and depositary shares.

Series F reaches the reset date set in 2016

The timing was built into the security when BNY issued Series F a decade ago. The company’s 2016 prospectus supplement covered a $1 billion offering of 1 million depositary shares at $1,000 apiece, each representing a 1/100th interest in a Series F preferred share with a $100,000 liquidation preference. BNY received $990 million before offering expenses after a $10-per-depositary-share underwriting discount, and the offering settled on Aug. 1, 2016.

Series F was structured as perpetual preferred stock rather than a security with a fixed maturity. Its dividend rate was 4.625% from the original issue date to, but excluding, Sept. 20, 2026. The 2016 documents specified a floating rate based on three-month LIBOR plus 3.131 percentage points from that date and also gave BNY the option to redeem the preferred stock on Sept. 20 or on later dividend payment dates at the same $100,000-per-preferred-share amount, equivalent to $1,000 per depositary share.

That makes Sept. 20 both the first scheduled reset point and the first ordinary call date under the original terms. BNY has chosen the redemption route instead of leaving Series F outstanding beyond that date, so the original floating-rate phase does not govern a future Series F dividend period. The 2016 documents also made clear that holders could not require BNY to redeem or repurchase the shares. The present action therefore reflects the issuer exercising its contractual redemption right rather than the arrival of a maturity date.

The noncumulative structure is also relevant to the final payment mechanics. Series F dividends were payable only when declared by BNY’s board and did not accumulate merely because the security was perpetual. For the final fixed-rate period, however, BNY did declare the dividend that is scheduled for Sept. 21, separate from the redemption price.

BNY has made other preferred-stock moves in 2026

The Series F retirement is not BNY’s only preferred-stock action this year. Its second-quarter filing said the parent company redeemed all outstanding Series H Noncumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock in June. In July, BNY then issued 500,000 depositary shares representing interests in newly created Series N Noncumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock.

The Series N offering had a $500 million aggregate public offering price. BNY set a 6.150% annual dividend rate through Sept. 20, 2031, after which the rate is scheduled to reset using the five-year Treasury rate plus 1.868 percentage points. The company said the net proceeds from Series N were intended for general corporate purposes. Those disclosures establish a sequence of preferred-capital actions during 2026, but BNY did not say in the Series F redemption notice that the July issuance funded the September redemption or provide another specific strategic rationale for retiring Series F.

That distinction keeps the immediate event straightforward. Series F holders reach the end of the security’s outstanding life on Sept. 20 under BNY’s notice, with no further dividends accruing after that date. The remaining scheduled step is the Sept. 21 cash payment through DTC procedures, alongside the separately declared final dividend for investors who were holders of record on Sept. 5.