JPMorgan is changing Jamie Dimon’s top lieutenants

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JPMorgan Chase said Jenn Piepszak will replace Daniel Pinto as chief operating officer, but will not seek the CEO job, complicating the race to one day succeed Jamie Dimon at the top of the US central bank.

Pinto, JPMorgan’s president and COO, will step down from his role at the end of June and retire at the end of next year, the bank said on Tuesday.

Piepszak was named COO immediately.

The moves come a year after JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon passed away change of senior leaders in the bank, which led to the high-level management of several managers close to Pinto.

In a a series of moves in January 2024, Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh took over JPMorgan’s expanded commercial and investment banking division from Pinto, serving as co-heads.

Those changes led to speculation that Piepszak was the front-runner to eventually succeed Dimon, one of the most powerful people on Wall Street.

However, JPMorgan he told the FT on Tuesday that Piepszak was not looking for a senior job, stating “his choice for a bigger part of the operation working closely with Jamie”.

JPMorgan also promoted Doug Petno on Tuesday to replace Piepszak as co-head of commercial and investment banking, along with Rohrbaugh.

The announcement puts Petno on the list of possible replacements for Dimon, 68.

Lake and Erdoes will continue in their current roles, the bank said.

Dimon’s successor has long been the subject of speculation, with Pinto himself once considered a candidate for the top job.

Although no timeline has been set for Dimon’s departure, the bank in 2021 offered Dimon a retention bonus that would tie him to the bank until at least mid-2026.

Last year, Dimon tell the investorthat is, the search for his successor was on the way, and that the schedule for him to step down as manager was less than the five-year period he had previously stated.

Dimon may remain chairman, however, even after he relinquishes his executive duties.

The latest change comes a day before JPMorgan reports its fourth-quarter earnings.

The bank’s net profit is expected to rise by almost a third to $11.7bn in the last three months of 2024 from the same period last year.

This number is estimated to be boosted by the strength of bank funds and markets, but also affected by the major crisis in late 2023 when banks had to pay the deposit insurance fund to cover costs of district bank failures for that year.

Reported by Peter Wells, Adam Samson, Joshua Franklin and Brooke Masters in New York and Ortenca Aliaj in London.