Open Editor's Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories for this weekly newsletter.
JPMorgan Chase said Jenn Piepszak will replace Daniel Pinto as chief operating officer but won't seek the chief executive job, a tough race to one day succeed Jamie Dimon at the top of the biggest US bank.
Pinto, JPMorgan's president and COO, will relinquish his responsibilities at the end of June and retire at the end of next year, the bank said Tuesday.
Piepszak was named COO immediately.
The moves come a year after JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon left reorganization of senior leadership in the bank, which caused a high turnover of many managers around Pinto.
In a a series of movements In January 2024, Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh assumed responsibility for JPMorgan's expanded trading and investment division from Pinto, serving as co-heads.
That change led to speculation that Piepszak was among the frontrunners to eventually succeed Dimon, one of Wall Street's most powerful figures.
Even so, JPMorgan told the FT on Tuesday that Piepszak did not seek the top job, citing his “interest in a senior role working closely with Jamie”.
JPMorgan also promoted Doug Petno on Tuesday to replace Piepszak as head of commercial and investment banking, alongside Rohrbaugh.
The promotion contradicts Petno's list of possibilities for Dimon, 68. Other contenders are considered Rohrbaugh, Marianne Lake, head of JPMorgan's consumer banking, and Mary Erdoes, asset and wealth manager.
Lake and Erdoes will continue in their current roles, the bank said.
Who will succeed Dimon has long been speculated about, with Pinto himself once considered a candidate for the top job.
While there is no timeline for Dimon's departure, the bank in 2021 offered Dimon a retention bonus that would tie him to the bank until mid-2026.
Last May, Dimon told the investorthat the search for a successor is “under way”, and that the period of his resignation as chief executive was less than the five years he had previously mentioned.
Dimon may remain chairman, however, even after he relinquishes his management responsibilities.
A senior Wall Street executive said it would be a mistake to view Tuesday's moves as the height of any particular candidate. Is Jamie clearing the decks to make Marianne the next CEO? I don't think so. He doesn't want to go.”
JPMorgan pointed out in Dimon's comments on the investor day that the selection of his successor was “up to the board . . . . When I can't put on a jersey and give it my all, I have to go, basically.”
The latest adjustment comes just a day before JPMorgan reports its fourth-quarter earnings.
The bank's revenue is expected to increase by about a third to 11.7bn in the last three months of 2024 from the same period last year.
This number is expected to be boosted by strong investment bank income and market income, but is also complimented by a big hit in late 2023 when banks had to make payments to the federal deposit insurance fund to cover the cost of this year's regional bank failures.
Reporting by Peter Wells, Adam Samson, Joshua Franklin and Brooke Masters in New York and Ortenca Aliaj in London.