Fresh questions over JP Morgan succession as boss Jamie Dimon recovers from heart surgery

JP Morgan’s main executive Jamie Dimon is recovering from unexpected emergency coronary heart surgery – shining a spotlight on the bank’s succession strategies, with a British govt among frontrunners to swap him.

Mr Dimon experienced a tear in his heart’s primary artery, which was detected early and dealt with correctly, JP Morgan reported.

The 63-calendar year-previous has run the financial institution due to the fact 2005, and is the previous Wall Road boss standing from ahead of the monetary disaster. He is reported to be awake, inform and recovering perfectly. JP Morgan did not say in which he is being dealt with.

The bank’s co-presidents and co-main functioning officers, Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith, are operating JP Morgan as Mr Dimon recovers.

It focuses interest on opportunity successors for Mr Dimon. As perfectly as Mr Pinto and Mr Smith they also involve consumer lending boss Marianne Lake, who grew up in the British isles and analyzed at the College of Looking at.

The fifty-calendar year-previous single mother has labored at JP Morgan for 21 several years and was earlier finance director.

JP Morgan will now have to weather its most turbulent period of time due to the fact the monetary disaster without having Mr Dimon in cost, as it attempts to offer with the fallout from the coronavirus. Its market worth has plunged 17pc in the previous two weeks.  

Brian Kleinhanzl, an analyst at KBW, reported: “The base line is that Mr Dimon is frequently viewed as a continual hand for the banking field in the course of turbulent times (like we are in now), so not possessing him at the helm… is a modest detrimental.”

Mr Pinto, 57, and Mr Smith, 61, are regarded as the most probably successors in the limited term ought to Mr Dimon step down.

An Argentine, Mr Pinto has put in his total 37-calendar year vocation at JP Morgan and its predecessor firms. He oversees the corporate and investment financial institution and has served the lender surge to the top rated of Wall Street’s investing and investment-banking ranks.

Mr Smith runs the consumer financial institution, which has developed to add 50 {79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of the firm’s earnings and has far more employees than any other division.

Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo, reported: “JP Morgan has a deep administration bench. However, [Mr Dimon’s] industry leadership will be skipped in the course of this disaster-like period of time.”

JP Morgan did not give any direction on how long Mr Dimon will be away. 

Analysis by the American College or university of Cardiology explained acute aortic dissection – the ailment formulated by Mr Dimon – as “a single of the most lethal cardiovascular circumstances”.

It is most popular in men in their 60s and 70s and the signs can frequently mimic a coronary heart assault.  If dealt with in time, individuals commonly spend a week in hospital followed by numerous weeks’ recovery at residence, in accordance to medics. 

This is Mr Dimon’s second big health scare. In 2014, he was out of do the job for numerous months following getting diagnosed with throat cancer but staged a full recovery.