• Daniel Pinto will step down as JPMorgan's president and COO in June and retire at the end of 2026.
• The JPMorgan veteran has long been CEO Jamie Dimon's stand-in in case of an emergency.
• Jennifer Piepszak has been promoted to chief operating officer but doesn't want the CEO role.

Daniel Pinto, long the JPMorgan Chase executive who would stand in for Jamie Dimon as CEO in an emergency, will step down as a top lieutenant.

Pinto is being replaced as chief operating officer by Jennifer Piepszak, currently a co-CEO of JPMorgan's commercial and investment bank.

At first glance, the promotion might appear to vault Piepszak into the lead in the race to succeed Dimon. But she has said she doesn't want the CEO job.

"Jenn has made clear her preference for a senior operating role working closely with Jamie and in support of the top leadership team going forward and does not want to be considered for the CEO position at this time," a bank spokesman, Joseph Evangelisti, said.

"She is deeply committed to the future of the firm and our people and wants to help the company in any way she can," Evangelisti added.

Piepszak will be succeeded at the commercial and investment bank by Doug Petno, currently a cohead of global banking, the bank said on Tuesday. Troy Rohrbaugh, the other co-CEO of the commercial and investment bank, was promoted to that post in a reshuffle a year ago.

Such reshuffles are intended to give the bank's top leadership greater familiarity with its businesses. The latest shake-up comes a day before JPMorgan is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings and may reshape the speculation about who will succeed Dimon, who turns 69 in March.

At the bank's investor day last May, Dimon abandoned his usual answer to the succession question to say that his timeline was "not five years anymore." He has led the bank, America's biggest and most influential, since January 2006.

While his target date may have come more into focus, the identity of who the bank's board will want as his successor remains fuzzy.

Piepszak, who has served as chief financial officer and head of the consumer business among other positions at the bank, had been seen as a leading candidate. Rohrbaugh, Petno, and Marianne Lake, who remains the chief executive of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan, are also considered potential candidates. Those executives, and Mary Erdoes, the chief executive of asset and wealth management at the bank, report directly to Dimon.

In a note on Tuesday, Mike Mayo, a banking analyst with Wells Fargo, wrote that "succession has been a bit murky, and this [the management shakeup] doesn't change it much." Dimon, Mayo said, could remain in the top job for several more years, noting that the CEO has 1.5 million of stock options that vest in mid-2026.

The 'hit by the bus' executive

Dimon has described Pinto as his "hit by the bus" executive. When Dimon had emergency heart surgery in 2020, Pinto and Gordon Smith, then the bank's presidents, ran the bank.

The bank said on Tuesday that Pinto would step down as president and chief operating officer in June and retire at the end of 2026.

It also said John Simmons, the head of commercial banking, would succeed Petno and team up with Filippo Gori as coheads of global banking.

Pinto will remain on through the end of 2026 to help with the transition to Piepszak.

In a press release, Dimon described Pinto as "a first-class person who I am proud to call a friend" and who "has made a truly significant impact on our company for more than 40 years," adding, "I'm thrilled he will continue to support and advise us."

Succession on Wall Street is tricky. Egos can be bruised, talent leaves, tensions flare. Morgan Stanley appeared to have achieved a remarkably smooth transition last year, with Ted Pick succeeding James Gorman as CEO and the two runners-up staying on. But succession drama is more common.

As Mayo, the Wells Fargo analyst, said after the 2024 reshuffle at JPMorgan of a post-Dimon bank, "There are still limited spots at the top of JPM, so there is the risk of departures of other JPM execs who want their shot at the top, too."