British woman Marianne Lake tipped for top at JP Morgan

A British banker is in the frame to become JP Morgan’s first female chief executive.

Single mother Marianne Lake, 54, who grew up in the UK, is heavily tipped to take on the world’s top banking job following a reshuffle.

JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon handed her new responsibilities overnight, granting her sole control of the consumer and community bank.

The promotion gives her oversight of a sprawling unit that in itself would be the sixth-largest US bank by assets.

It includes credit cards, small business lending and wealth management and accounted for half of the bank’s profits in the final quarter of last year.

The high stakes reshuffle by Dimon comes after JP Morgan achieved the largest annual profit of any bank in US history in 2023, while its shares are up almost a quarter in the past year.

The question of who might take over from Dimon, 67, is one that looms over the industry with gossip rife on Wall Street about who will take the top job.

Dimon has repeatedly brushed aside suggestions he might step aside amid speculation that he has political ambitions.

He has been at the helm since 2006, and in 2021 the board gave him a special incentive package worth more than £40m to stay until at least 2026.

Under Dimon, JP Morgan has become the largest bank in the United States, even outgunning the mighty Goldman Sachs.

Lake has been part of the rise, succeeding in a notoriously male-dominated industry to be named one of the most powerful women in banking. If she were to land the top job she would become the second British woman to lead a Wall Street titan, alongside Jane Fraser, 56, who has run Citigroup since 2021.

But Lake, who has dual nationality, faces stiff competition from internal rivals Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh, who were promoted to co-heads of the commercial and investment banking division.

Lake has been well-known to investors since she was named chief financial officer in 2013.

She held that position until 2019, when she was assigned to oversee consumer lending.

Known for her tough demeanour and self-deprecating sense of humour, Lake juggles her high-profile job with raising three children.

The Reading University graduate has joked about her reputation for enjoying a tipple – an admission that has raised eyebrows among Wall Street’s largely teetotal major players.

She had her first child at 42 and twins when she was 45, deciding on both occasions to do so without a partner.

On juggling family life with the demands of her high-profile career, Lake has previously said she relies on ‘a small circle of friends and my great nanny’.

Lake was born in Maryland in the US to a British father and American mother.

The family moved to the UK when she was just two.

She went to the US with JP Morgan in 2004 and rose rapidly through the ranks, impressing Dimon as she went.

Dimon said: ‘JP Morgan Chase is stronger today than it has ever been, and this is thanks to our hundreds of thousands of employees and our superb senior management team.’

He has made it clear he has no near-term plans to leave but also openly mused about life after JPMorgan.

‘I can’t do this forever, I know that,’ Dimon told analysts last summer.