By Emily Glazer
Matthew Zames, the chief operating officer at J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. once thought to be a possible successor to Chief
Executive James Dimon, is leaving the firm, the bank said
Thursday.
The departure of Mr. Zames, 46, will kick off a new round of
speculation within the bank about possible heirs to Mr. Dimon. But
it will also reinforce views the longstanding chief of the biggest
U.S. bank by assets isn't going anywhere soon.
Mr. Dimon, widely viewed as the most powerful executive on Wall
Street and a statesman for the banking industry, has told people
within the bank that he plans to stay in his role for another five
years, executives said, though the number hasn't changed as the
years pass.
Mr. Dimon sent a memo to employees Thursday detailing Mr.
Zames's decision to leave, saying, "While I am sad to see him
leave, I respect his decision and all he has done for J.P. Morgan
Chase," according to a copy of the memo reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal.
"Jamie has been public on numerous occasions he would like to be
here another five years or so," Mr. Zames said in an interview
Thursday. "I want to get back to...running a business."
Mr. Zames "didn't want to stick around" since it was unlikely he
would be named CEO of J.P. Morgan in the near future, or at all,
people familiar with the situation said. What's more, people within
the bank viewed Mr. Zames's chances to gain the top spot to have
fallen, according to employees and executives
What's more, people within the bank viewed Mr. Zames's chances
to gain the top spot to have fallen within the past year or two,
according to employees and executives.
The decision for Mr. Zames to leave was amicable and was Mr.
Zames's decision, a spokesman for the bank said. While he aspires
to be a CEO at another company, it won't necessarily be in finance,
he said. Mr. Zames added that he is leaving the bank without
another job lined up because he wants to "survey the landscape and
make the right decision for me."
In departing, Mr. Zames becomes the latest in a string of
potential successors to Mr. Dimon who have either chosen to leave
rather than wait, or been pushed out. Such executives have included
Jes Staley, who is now CEO of Barclays PLC, Bill Winters, currently
CEO of Standard Chartered PLC and Charles Scharf, who until
recently was CEO of Visa Inc., among others.
With Mr. Zames now out of the running, current executives viewed
as potential CEO successor candidates include: Gordon Smith, head
of the consumer-banking business; Daniel Pinto, head of the firm's
corporate and investment-banking business; Mary Callahan Erdoes,
head of its asset-management business, and Marianne Lake, the
bank's chief financial officer.
Mr. Zames was elevated to his current role of chief operating
officer in the wake of the "London Whale" trading scandal that cost
the bank around $6 billion. The former head of the bank's
fixed-income business, he was widely credited with helping to sort
out the fiasco within the bank's chief investment office.
Mr. Zames is known throughout the bank as someone with a
trader's personality, who is blunt and passionate about his work.
He was said to have led the bank's cost-cutting efforts a few years
ago with an iron fist, which frustrated some executives and
employees.
But there are also "Zames guys," or employees who have worked
alongside him and respect his work, especially in the corporate and
investment bank. Some employees who had worked with Mr. Zames said
they were surprised and disappointed in his decision to leave the
bank.
In his current role, Mr. Zames oversaw a number of groups across
the bank including cybersecurity, technology, real estate and other
functions. Earlier, he held roles across the investment banking and
trading businesses.
His role became more important in recent years as J.P. Morgan
and other banks were tested by cyberthreats and upstart fintech
companies.
J.P. Morgan responded by boosting its tech budget to $9.5
billion annually, according to a letter Mr. Zames wrote for the
company's annual report in April that also highlighted the bank's
hiring of outside programmers and its push into robotics and
machine learning.
"I have never been more excited about the opportunities ahead,"
Mr. Zames wrote at the time.
Executives on the bank's operating committee will take on Mr.
Zames's responsibilities, a spokesman said.
Mr. Zames was one of the bank's most highly paid executives.
According to J.P. Morgan's most recent proxy statement, Mr. Zames
was awarded total pay of $19 million for his work in 2016, up from
$18.5 million the previous year and $17 million for 2014.
Mr. Zames's 2016 pay was the same as that of Ms. Erdoes and Mr.
Pinto. It was $9 million less than the $28 million pay package the
bank awarded Mr. Dimon.
According to a regulatory filing by the bank Thursday, Mr. Zames
will be entitled to a future severance payment of $900,000, plus
discretionary payments of $4.625 million in February 2018 and $4.5
million in February 2019.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 08, 2017 18:41 ET (22:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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