Dive Brief:

  • JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday said his remaining time at the helm of the bank is “essentially the same” and is “totally up to the board, not up to me,” after two bank executives were named co-presidents last month.
  • Dimon also shed more light on the events surrounding the departure of former consumer and community banking CEO Marianne Lake and the appointment of Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh as co-presidents.
  • “The board made a decision to go ahead with making two co-presidents,” which will prepare Petno and Rohrbaugh to do more at the company, Dimon said during the bank’s second-quarter earnings call. “As a result, [Lake] decided, once she knew about the plans, that she'd rather retire than stay here.”

Dive Insight:

Dimon, 70, has been CEO of the biggest U.S. bank for two decades, and observers have repeatedly asked about his retirement timeline. At the bank’s company update in February, he said, “I’m here for a few years as CEO, and maybe a few after that as executive chairman, pending whatever the board wants to do.”

Dimon reiterated Tuesday that he expects to remain at the helm for a few more years, “plus or minus.” Although he didn’t say what prompted the board’s appointment of Petno and Rohrbaugh as co-presidents, Dimon referred to it as “a natural change that we have to go to, about how we go about this.”

The management reshuffle was announced June 25. Petno and Rohrbaugh had been co-CEOs of JPMorgan’s commercial and investment bank. In addition to their co-president roles, Petno is now the sole CEO of the CIB, while Rohrbaugh took on the role of CEO of consumer and community banking.

When an analyst asked Dimon what gives the board confidence in Rohrbaugh running the consumer segment despite his lack of experience in that domain, the CEO said Rohrbaugh has “exhibited great expertise” in the operations, back-office and technology functions in markets and investment banking, and “we're completely comfortable with that.”

And Rohrbaugh’s appointment to oversee consumer banking will give him a broader experience set, Dimon said.

“It's very important that people have experience across the company,” Dimon said. When big banks appoint a CEO who only holds investment banking experience and “only cares about the investment bank,” Dimon said, “the rest of the franchise can suffer.”

“You need respect for the rest of the franchise,” Dimon said.

Dimon rattled off a list of qualities the board will prioritize in a new CEO, including an analytical mindset, emotional intelligence, being a “culture carrier,” a strong work ethic, people skills and the ability to interact both with operating center employees and global leaders.

“No one has all those things in the perfect way, and some of those things you learn, and some of those things you get better at,” Dimon said. “But you know it when you see it, and we have two exceptional co-presidents. We have other people at the company who are great culture carriers.”

Jennifer Piepszak, JPMorgan’s chief operating officer, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management, each received one-time retention and continuity awards of $20 million when Petno and Rohrbaugh were named co-presidents.

The New York-based bank posted quarterly profit of $16.9 billion, excluding gains related to Visa shares and certain equity investments, according to an earnings release. The lender’s net revenue rose 28%, to $57.3 billion, powered partly by an 86% jump in equity markets revenue to $6 billion.