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

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.