In a press release yesterday, the bank announced that Zames, the current co-chief operating officer (COO), will take over the position entirely, effective immediately. The other co-COO Frank Bisignano is leaving to become the CEO of First Data Corp.
"I am pleased that Matt Zames is expanding his role," JPMorgan CEO
Zames is considered a total rockstar at the bank.
Zames was the highest paid executive at JPMorgan getting $17 million ( $6.1 million and $9.2 million of restricted stock), Bloomberg News reported citing a proxy filing. He even took home more than Dimon.
According to Bloomberg News, JPMorgan's board said Zames "demonstrated leadership and risk-management discipline."
Zames was elevated to co-chief operating officer after serving a stint as the chief investment officer following the London Whale trading losses.
"Matt Zames is a world-class risk manager and executive — highly regarded for his judgment and integrity," Dimon said in a statement when Zames was named CIO.
Before taking over as CIO after Ina Drew's depature last May, Zames served as the co-head of global fixed income in the investment bank and the head of capital markets within the mortgage bank.
Zames, 42, has been considered a potential contender to succeed Dimon as CEO.
Zames was also identified in federal bankruptcy court filing by Irvin Picard as the JPMorgan employee who warned a bank executive back in 2007 about Madoff's returns speculating that it was a Ponzi scheme, according to a New York Times' report.
Before joining JPMorgan in 2004, Zames worked as a managing director at Credit Suisse where he was the co-head of US Rated Trading. Prior to that, he was a trader at Long Term Capital Management INC -- a hedge fund that failed in the late 1990s.
He's a member of the MIT Sloan Finance Advisory Board, chairman of the U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee and a member of the JPMorgan Investment Bank Management Committee.
He graduated from MIT Sloan School of Management with a bachelor's degree in 1993.