By Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase’s global head of payments, Takis Georgakopoulos, is leaving to pursue other opportunities after leading the business since 2017, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
Max Neukirchen and Umar Farooq have been picked as his successors, effective immediately. The appointments are the latest big leadership changes put in place by CEO candidates Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh as they put their stamp on the newly-merged commercial and investment banking division.
Georgakopoulos, who sat on the firm’s operating committee of top leaders, had been with the bank for 17 years and is credited with expanding its payments business, which processes $10 trillion a day.
“During his tenure, the business has become one of the firm’s biggest growth engines, increasing revenue and market share in a highly competitive environment,” Piepszak and Rohrbaugh, co-heads of the commercial and investment bank, wrote in an internal note to employees.
Revenue for the payments business stood at $2.4 billion in the first quarter, higher than the $2 billion revenue brought in from investment banking.
“Payments clearly stands out from the rest,” Piepszak said during the bank’s annual investor day last month.
JPMorgan has more than 9% market share in global payments. Payments services are often the first offered to new clients, and have been among the bank’s biggest growth areas in recent years, executives told investors last month.
Piepszak and Rohrbaugh are among the executives who could replace CEO Jamie Dimon, who plans to step down in less than five years.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen)
