Wall Street’s biggest boss, Jamie Dimon, has hinted that he could stay on as chairman of JP Morgan after he steps back from the chief executive role.
Dimon has been running America’s largest bank, with 310,000 employees around the world, since 2005, and speculation about when the 68-year-old will hand over the reins has been rife for a long time, with the boss himself making a joke of always repeating that his retirement is five years away. But at an investor day last week, Dimon said it was “not five years any more” and that succession planning was “well on the way”.
His comments triggered instant speculation that his departure was edging closer. However, on a call with investors, he raised the idea for the first time that he might retire as chief executive but remain as chairman. “Will I stay as chairman for a while? We’ll see,” he said.
Currently, as is common in US companies, Dimon is both chairman and chief executive, but the roles could be split with him taking the chair while a new chief executive is installed. Front-runners for that job include Marianne Lake, who runs JP Morgan’s consumer division and was brought up in the UK, and Jennifer Piepszak, currently in charge of the commercial and investment bank.
Tim Piechowski, portfolio manager at Alpine Capital Research, which manages $360 million (£285 million) worth of JP Morgan stock for clients, said expectations were mounting that “there’s a CEO and he’s non-executive chairman for some period of time”.
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At the bank’s annual shareholder meeting last week, a resolution calling for the roles to be split at JP Morgan achieved what analysts at Bank of America described as a “surprisingly high” 42.7 per cent vote in favour.
Speculation about Dimon’s leaving date has centred on 2026, when a five-year shares award currently worth $75 million comes due.
JP Morgan, which employs 22,000 staff in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bournemouth, declined to comment.
