Bank shareholders, rejoice.

With Bank of Montreal ( BMO) raising its dividend by 2.9% on Tuesday — its first increase in five years — all of the Big Five are back in dividend growth mode following the financial crisis. Bank of Nova Scotia ( BNS) also boosted its dividend by 3.6%, and we'll likely see more increases as other banks report this week.

For Bank of Montreal shareholders in particular, it's been a long wait. But bank investors have endured these sorts of dry spells before, and those who didn't panic were ultimately rewarded.

Royal Bank of Canada ( RY), for instance, went for more than five years without a dividend increase in the early 1990s, when its balance sheet was hammered by a recession and a nasty real estate bust. But as the economy improved, Royal Bank's dividend more than doubled over the next five years, and doubled again in the five years after that.

The message for investors? The banks hit their share of potholes, but as long-term investments, they're hard to beat.

That leads us to today's question: Which of the Big Five has delivered the highest return over the past 20 years? This is a period that encompassed economic slumps, market meltdowns, financial collapses, energy shocks, wars, and - as mentioned - long periods with zilch in the way of dividend increases. In other words, we're not looking at the banks through rose-colored glasses here.