📅 On This Day
Barclays' First ATM Quietly Planted Seeds of Bank Dividends
On June 27, 1967, Barclays installed what is recognized as the world's first automated teller machine in Enfield, London — dispensing cash via paper vouchers. What looked like a convenience novelty was, in structural terms, the opening move in a decades-long dismantling of branch-network costs. The expanded operating leverage and free cash flow that followed helped power the celebrated bank dividend hikes and buyback waves of the 1980s and 1990s.
A humble cash machine in North London quietly rewired how banks generated — and returned — capital to shareholders.
BCS — Barclays PLC ADR
🇬🇧 GB
Source: Barclays Group Corporate Archives; 'The History of the ATM' by B. Batiz-Lazo (2011)
🌍 Around the World
Switzerland's 35% Dividend Tax Demands Patience — and Paperwork
Switzerland levies a 35% withholding tax on dividends, and even investors covered by a treaty rate of 15% must pay the full amount upfront before filing a complex, multi-year reclaim with the Swiss Federal Tax Administration. The process is so demanding that many retail investors simply absorb the loss — effectively watching a 3% gross yield compress to 1.95% net. Several global ETF providers have shifted to synthetic replication for Swiss equity exposure specifically to sidestep the ordeal.
The refund is real, but the road to it is long enough that many investors never bother to claim it.
🇨🇭 CH
Source: Swiss Federal Tax Administration; Bogleheads international tax guide
🔥 Dividend Streak
Nordson's Family Name Is Literally Baked Into Its Dividend Legacy
Nordson traces its roots to a 1909 screw-machine company — one that went bankrupt in 1929 and was rescued by Walter Nord, whose sons Eric and Evan later acquired the spray patents that built the modern business. The name is no accident: Nord plus son. Today the industrial dispenser-maker has raised its dividend for 62 consecutive years, starting in 1964, and carries a charter commitment of 5% of pretax earnings to charity.
Few Dividend Kings can say their very name encodes the family story behind six decades of unbroken payout growth.
NDSN — Nordson Corporation
Source: encyclopedia.com; nordson.com/en/our-company/about-nordson
💡 Did You Know
Dividend Kings Offer Reliability First, Eye-Catching Yield Second
The 57 companies holding Dividend King status — each with 50 or more consecutive years of payout increases — collectively average roughly a 4% yield, which is modest beside high-yield corners of the market. But the quiet arithmetic is the point: a 3.5% yielder raising its payout 7% annually can double your income in about a decade without an additional share purchased. California Water Service, with 77 consecutive years of increases across seven recessions, is the archetype of what this group is really built for: compounding.
These stocks aren't chasing today's highest yield — they're engineered to make your income grow while you wait.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Sure Dividend 2026 Dividend Kings list; California Water Service investor relations