By any metric, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price has had an awful year over 2022 thus far. As it stands today, the ANZ share price has lost a nasty 16.92% year to date.
That doesn't look great against the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is also in the red for the year, but by a far tamer 6.2%. So ANZ's 2022 losses have almost tripled those of the ASX 200. Ouch.
But in one positive for newer investors, in particular, this fall in value has pushed up the ANZ dividend yield to the 6.19% it stands at today. That comes from ANZ's last two dividend payments.
These were the interim dividend of 72 cents per share, fully franked, that investors were paid on 1 July, and the final dividend of 72 cents per share, also fully franked, that shareholders received last December.
So is this rather large dividend yield really the top offering of the big four ASX banks at present?
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Does ANZ really top the ASX bank shares for dividends today?
Well, let's go through them. ANZ's dividend certainly looks good against the current offering from the 'big dog' of the ASX banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).
CBA shares are currently offering a trailing yield of 3.91% at the current share price. That's including the bank's final dividend hike that was delivered earlier this month to $2.10 per share. Nothing to turn a nose up against, but certainly not in ANZ's ballpark.
Turning to Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), we can see that Westpac has a yield of 5.56% on the table today. That's getting close to ANZ, but not quite a cigar.
Finally, National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) has a dividend yield of 4.55% on offer today. Again, that's solid, but no candle to ANZ.
So it is true that ANZ currently has the highest dividend yield of the big four ASX bank shares today.
As we discussed earlier, this is something of a byproduct of the poor performance of ANZ shares over recent months. But perhaps dividend income-minded investors won't care too much about that.
