The supposedly strongest player on the US financial scene, JPMorgan Chase & Co came up with a surprise move on Monday – it announced the slashing of its dividend by a whopping 87 percent – from 38 cents to 5 cents - and further added that “for the time being,” it intends keeping that level!

JPMorgan said that the dividend will be billed April 30 to shareholders who held the stock as of April 6.

According to Bloomberg data, from 2006 to 2008, the amounts paid out by the company in common stock dividends increased from $4.9 billion in 2006 to $5.2 billion in 2007, further to $5.3 billion in 2008. At the announced 5 cents a share, the annual disbursement would be nearly $747 million.

Elaborating the reason behind its newly-announced decision, JPMorgan said that lower quarterly dividend would help the company save a yearly $5 billion of common equity; thereby facilitating the quicker repayment of the $25 billion federal loan it received in October.

In addition, as per the statement by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, the proposed move will also offer the bank expand its businesses, and provide it the much-required protection in case the economy shows any further deterioration. Saying that the proposal stemmed from the company’s “normal abundance of caution,” Dimon added: “Extraordinary times must call for extraordinary measures!”