JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the lender whose legal and regulatory battles led to more than $23 billion in settlements in 2013, said Chief Compliance Officer Cindy Armine left to join another firm after a year on the job.
Lou Rauchenberger, the chief administrative officer of the corporate and investment bank, was named as interim replacement, according to a staff memo from Chief Operating Officer Matt Zames obtained by Bloomberg News.
The departure was reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal, which said Armine is moving to First Data Corp., the payment processor run by former JPMorgan executive Frank Bisignano. He left JPMorgan last year when Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon named Zames sole chief operating officer at the bank. Bisignano hired JPMorgan's former Chief Information Officer Guy Chiarello as president last year.
JPMorgan has clashed with regulators and law enforcement officials over accusations that it misled buyers of mortgage bonds, rigged markets and overlooked suspicious activity by clients. The company agreed last month to pay $2.6 billion to settle allegations that it ignored signs of wrongdoing in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
"As Jamie and our leadership team have said, controls and compliance are our most important priority," Zames wrote. "We have made great progress over the past few years on our controls agenda, and we will continue to focus on it relentlessly."
Managers will seek to "ensure a fortress compliance and control environment," according to a slide show today at an annual presentation for investors.
Armine joined the firm in May 2011 as chief control officer of home lending after 31 years at Citigroup Inc., where she was chief compliance officer. She was promoted to JPMorgan's head of compliance in January 2013. Attempts to reach Armine for comment weren't immediately successful.
