Summary: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon still uses a retirement horizon of “about five years,” saying he will announce it if a real date is set. The article examines how his deputies are being positioned and the board’s authority.
For Jamie Dimon, retirement from JPMorgan is always still five years away
For years, Jamie Dimon has had a running joke: if you ask when he will step down as JPMorgan CEO, the answer is always five years from now, no matter when the question is asked.
But two years ago, Dimon said in a press release that with the bank naming two co-presidents who could take over if needed, he would remain CEO for “about five more years.”
Now fast forward to today: on a media call Tuesday, when CNBC raised the topic, Dimon did not appear to make a firm commitment to that timeline.
“My answer is still the same: five years,” Dimon said. “If and when we actually set a retirement date, we’ll let you know.”
Understandably, the 63-year-old Dimon may not want to think about stepping down right now. He has built JPMorgan into the largest U.S. bank since the financial crisis, making it an industry giant spanning mainstream commercial banking and Wall Street. The company just posted the most profitable year in banking history, and after its shares surged about 40% last year, JPMorgan is now also among the most highly valued of the major lenders.
Still, part of the reason the bank issued the statement in January 2018 was to ease concerns that strong deputies might leave out of frustration, a criticism that had been raised in the past. Dimon's deputies have since gone on to lead banks and financial institutions around the world, most recently at Wells Fargo.
A JPMorgan spokesperson said the board has the final say on when Dimon retires and noted that the 2018 remark was only a rough estimate.
Brian Moynihan, 60, of Bank of America said he hopes to lead the company as long as possible and pointed to Berkshire Hathaway's 89-year-old Warren Buffett as an example.
