US regulators are urging banks not to increase dividends or buy back shares until political and economic uncertainty surrounding the industry dissipates, in a move that will delay by months the return of capital to shareholders.

Some investors in financial stocks argue that winners of the credit crisis such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have profitable businesses and strong balance sheets and should consider raising dividends or buying back stocks.

Executives at the two companies have talked in public and with regulators about the possibility of returning cash to investors after taking action to conserve resources during the turmoil. However, they say that they are not in a rush to go ahead, especially if their watchdogs oppose such moves.

“Regulators are gun-shy at this stage, partly because they fear that giving the green light to healthier banks to return cash to investors would prompt demands from more troubled institutions to do the same,” one senior Wall Street executive said.

JPMorgan, which cut its dividend by 87 per cent in 2009, and Goldman, which halted share buy-backs in July 2008, declined to comment.

Goldman's incentive to buy back stock is heightened as it pays $500m a year in dividends to Warren Buffett following his purchase of $5bn of preferred securities at the height of the crisis in September 2008.

People close to the situation said US government agencies, led by the New York Federal Reserve and the Treasury, had told banks they would have to wait until the economic and legislative picture became clearer before returning funds to investors. The New York Fed and Treasury declined to comment.