Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan will pick a new CEO within five years

Jamie Dimon told investors on Monday that the search for his eventual successor was “on the way” as the longtime JPMorgan Chase chief executive indicated that he would step down as CEO within five years.

One of Wall Street’s longest-serving leaders, the topic of his eventual successor is one of the US banking industry’s most frequent topics of discussion, as well as an area of concern for investors worried that any replacement could struggle to replicate his success.

Asked at JPMorgan’s investor day on Monday, Dimon, said the topic of his replacement was a decision for the bank’s board of directors, which he chairs, but that “there are actually some really great potential CEOs here”.

“I have the energy that I’ve always had. That’s important. I think when I can’t put the jersey on and give it the fullest thing, I should leave, basically,” he said. “Will I stay as chairman for a while? We’ll see. We’re on the way, we’re moving people around,” added Dimon, who has led the bank since 2006.

The 68-year-old indicated that the timeline for his departure as CEO was less than the five years to which he has referred in the past, saying: “The timetable, you know, it’s not five years anymore.”

In January, Dimon shuffled his leadership team and positioned a trio of executives — Jennifer Piepszak, Marianne Lake and Troy Rohrbaugh — as leading candidates to replace him one day. 

In 2021, JPMorgan’s board awarded Dimon a retention bonus that would tie him to the bank until at least the middle of 2026.

At the investor event, shareholders grilled Dimon about the bank’s plans for its excess capital, which he said was about $40bn and is well above regulatory minimums.

Dimon dashed any hopes that he might use it to substantially increase the pace of share buybacks. 

“We’re not going to buy back a lot of stock at these prices,” he said: “It’s going to sit there until we can deploy it at very good returns.”

JPMorgan’s stock closed down 4.5 per cent on Monday, which Baird research analysts attributed to “a lack of interest to buy back stock at current prices and a shorter CEO transition timeline”. 

JPMorgan also lifted its outlook for how much it expects to earn this year from its lending business to about $91bn from about $89bn previously, as it benefits from the likelihood of the Federal Reserve keeping benchmark interest rates higher for longer.