Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase’s global payments chief Takis Georgakopoulos is leaving to pursue other opportunities, prompting the bank to appoint new executives to one of its fastest-growing divisions, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
Max Neukirchen and Umar Farouk have been selected to replace Georgakopoulos with immediate effect. The appointments are the latest major leadership changes made by CEO candidates Jennifer Piepsak and Troy Rohrbaugh, who have left their mark on the company’s newly combined commercial and investment banking divisions.
Georgakopoulos, who served on the firm’s senior management operating committee, worked at the bank for 17 years and is credited with growing its payments business, which processes $10 trillion a day.
“During his tenure, the business has become one of the firm’s largest growth engines, growing revenue and market share in a highly competitive environment,” Piepszak and Rohrbaugh, co-chief executives of the commercial and investment bank, wrote in an internal memo to employees. .
The payments business generated $2.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter, higher than the $2 billion in revenue generated from its investment banking business.
“Payments clearly stands out,” Piepszak said during the bank’s annual investor day last month.
JPMorgan has more than 9% of the global payments market. Payment services are often the first to be offered to new customers and have been among the bank’s biggest growth areas in recent years, executives told investors last month.
Neukirchen, who joined JPMorgan in 2013, previously served as global head of payments and commercial solutions.
Farooq was the CEO of Onyx, the bank’s blockchain platform. He joined JPMorgan in 2009.
Pipsak and Rohrbaugh are among executives who could replace CEO Jamie Dimon, who plans to retire in less than five years.
Georgakopoulos is the latest executive to leave the commercial and investment banking division.
Viswas Raghavan, who served as head of JPMorgan’s global investment banking division, is joining Citigroup this summer to head its banking division. Fernando Rivas has been named co-chief executive officer of Wells Fargo’s corporate and investment banking business.
Separately, the other firms were joined by senior dealers Andy Lipsky and Heidi Lee. Achintya Mangla, former global head of equity capital markets, also left.