When you want dividends; why are you looking at the US, instead of Australian banks, who pay the most

The biggest US banks including Goldman $Goldman Sachs (GS.US)$, BofA $Bank of America (BAC.US)$, Citi $Citigroup (C.US)$ and Wells Fargo $Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.US)$ boosted their dividend payouts after passing the Fed's annual stress test.But the US banking sector's average forward dividend yield of 4.00% (as per consensus for the year ahead), still lags under Australian counterparts.

JP Morgan, Bank of America $Bank of America (BAC.US)$, Well's Fargo $Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.US)$, Citi $Citigroup (C.US)$ are the biggest US banks and are expected to pay a forward dividend yield of 2.3-3.3% (consensus).

For the next 12 months, the market (consensus) thinks the below 20 companies in the ASX200 will pay the highest dividends. Fortescue Metals is the largest company in the ASX200 with the highest expected dividend yield, of 9.7%. But be mindful that Fortescue's $Fortescue Ltd (FMG.AU)$ share price is volatile and correlated to the iron ore price and how much iron ore China is buying given 91% of Fortescue Metals revenue is from iron ore and 89% of its revenue is from China.

The second largest company-high dividend payer on the ASX is Woodside $Woodside Energy Group Ltd (WDS.AU)$ . It has a forward dividend yield of 7.6%.