The bank said it cut the dividend from 38 cents a share to 5 cents a share to shore up its balance sheet against a potential “highly stressed environment”.
The move will save $5bn a year. JPMorgan, which has accepted $25bn in capital from the US government, said it had been “solidly profitable” in the first quarter to date and had $81bn of tangible common equity on its balance sheet.
Its tier one capital ratio was 10.9 per cent, well above the regulatory requirement. Its tangible common equity ratio, a measure of health that the government may use in its stress tests of US banks, sits at 6.5 per cent, above most of its competitors. Shares of the bank, which had a $24bn allowance for credit losses at the end of last year, rose more than 5 per cent in after-hours trading.