Jamie Dimon (Getty Images)

Jamie Dimon’s succession picture just got clearer — or a lot more muddy

JPMorgan’s Jennifer Piepszak got a promotion to be the bank’s COO, but it doesn’t mean what you might think.

1/14/25 12:14PM

It’s long been understood in banking circles that the successor to Jamie Dimon was likely to be Jennifer Piepszak or Marianne Lake.

They’ve been consistently reported as the top contenders to be the next CEO of JPMorgan Chase. They’ve been elevated together. And they’ve been given similar responsibilities, seemingly not-so-quietly readying for when Dimon decides to step down.

On Tuesday, Piepszak alone got a promotion. The company said she would succeed Daniel Pinto — Dimon’s right-hand man and the person who stepped in to run the bank when Dimon had heart issues — to become the chief operating officer of the biggest bank in the country.

On the surface, you’d think that would mean Piepszak is the front-runner to become the next CEO. But that’s not the case.

Instead, Piepszak has surprisingly decided to drop out of the running. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Piepszak isn’t interested in taking over a role as chief executive of the bank, people close to her said. She asked to take the COO role instead and is interested in supporting anyone who takes over the chief role from Dimon when he retires as CEO and likely becomes chairman of the board, the people said…
A spokesman for the bank said that Piepszak has made her preference clear for a top operating job but isn’t considering putting her hat in the ring for the top job ‘at this time.’”

That could clear a path for Lake, who wasn’t one of the executives who got promoted Tuesday and will remain CEO of JPM’s consumer and community banking, to eventually take the top job.

Or it could potentially open up the job of replacing Dimon to a new insider. The Journal reports that others who could be contenders include Troy Rohrbaugh and Doug Petno, who are now running JPM’s commercial and investment bank.

We may need to wait quite a while to find out how this plays out — Dimon has said he intends to retire by 2029.

Max Knoblauch20h

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.