Reuters reports that the European Central Bank will pay the currency bloc's 19 central banks 1.6 billion euros in dividends this year, down from the 2.4 billion euros it paid a year ago as its profit declined, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The ECB's net profit for 2020 fell to 1.64 billion euros from 2.37 billion a year earlier, mostly on a drop in net interest income to 2.02 billion euro from 2.69 billion euros.