A rendering of JPMorgan Chase's new headquarters, scheduled to open in 2025.
JPMorgan Chase
When JPMorgan Chase's global head of payments, Takis Georgakopoulos, steps down from his role, he leaves big shoes to fill. His 17-year tenure includes a record of rapid expansion, an embrace of myriad digital advances and the defense of the institution's position as the market's largest merchant acquirer.
The challenge of maintaining and expanding that record will fall to Umar Farooq and Max Neurkirchen, executives who are inheriting a unit that generated revenue of $18.25 billion in 2023, up from $9.8 billion in 2022, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Georgakopoulos is leaving the bank for an unspecified opportunity.)
Farooq and Neurkirchen will take charge in a time of political uncertainty, changes in how card fees contribute to payments revenue and the continuing encroachment of technology firms that directly target merchants and consumers with easy access to digital payments.
"JPMorgan Chase continues to benefit from scale, such as being the No. 1 credit card issuer, as well as its ability to invest in technology," said Aaron McPherson, a principal at AFM Consulting, noting that the bank is spending about $4 billion in technology in 2024, over the $3.6 billion invested in 2023.
"This focus on technology helps defend against fintech encroachment, by keeping the bank's offerings current," McPherson said.
The bank did not provide a timetable for the transition. Farooq is the bank's current co-head of global payments sales and CEO of JPMorgan's blockchain unit Onyx. Neukirchen is global head of payments and commerce solutions, focusing on payments software and building partnerships.
Big projects
One of Neukirchen's most recent initiatives is the expansion of JPMorgan's systems integrator program, which debuted in March with Accenture as its first participant. In late May, the program added Studio Science, a customer experience consultancy.
"Organizations are demanding more deeply integrated and embedded solutions to support their end-to-end payment experiences that go beyond traditional payments-related pain points, such as customer experiences and support with developing, launching and enhancing payment products," said Neukirchen, who had not yet transitioned to his new role at the time he spoke with American Banker.
Max Neukirchen
JPMorgan Chase
Merchants, platform providers and marketplaces that want to integrate JPMorgan payments products can also access Studio Science's consulting, design and implementation services through the bank's System Integrator Program. This program, as part of the bank's larger partner network, is designed for companies that specialize in payments consulting, implementation and operations.
"Companies often face several points of friction in their end-to-end payment experiences, including customer experience, resourcing and technical implementation," said Neukirchen, adding that Studio Science develops road maps to scale future projects by accessing JPMorgan Payments' products, design messaging and other functions.
Accenture offers its professional services to help organizations adopt payments technology, and provide more personalized, responsive and secure payment experiences.
Studio Science works with B2B and B2C brands, mostly in the mid-market to enterprise size. Companies include manufacturing, technology, government agencies and other private-sector firms, with Studio Science normally working with data teams, customer experience and branding staff.
"JPMorgan Payments is actually also a client of ours and we built the back end of the partner program, while also helping JPMorgan bring it to life," said Kyle Davis, a director at Studio Science. "So we have an advantage of understanding this program and what they're wanting to accomplish."
Many of Studio Science's users are on legacy systems that are either disparate or outdated, Davis said. They need to better centralize data and experiences, or they're struggling to engage their customers in the ways they want, "so we'll help implement new platforms, integrate their systems into a holistic ecosystem," Davis said. "A lot of it comes down to helping brands better understand how, when and where customers want brands to engage with them, and then creating strategies that make that engagement more seamless and impactful."
Other recent payment projects at JPMorgan Chase include a payments bundle that combines different channels while supporting technology that automates checkout and other in-store functions. The bank is also working on an initiative that will use biometrics to support digital check-in at stores to reduce reliance on static points of sale.
JPMorgan is additionally adding more banking services to its merchant support operation in Canada, and recently launched Chase Media Solutions to power debit and loyalty marketing programs that merchants directly fund, enabling the bank's clients to provide incentives directly.
Umar Farooq
JPMorgan Chase
The bank's work in digital-asset payments includes a programmable money service that uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to improve automation for business-to-business transactions.
In an earlier interview with American Banker, Farooq said: "We believe that having a platform where you can move value and assets seamlessly across the world is fundamentally a new way of thinking about things and it can have a very meaningful impact on how future infrastructure works."
The fallout from JPMorgan's legal dispute with Viva Wallet is also ongoing, adding legal pressure to potential regulatory issues. JPMorgan owns 48.5% of the Greek fintech Viva Wallet, with Viva investors owning the rest. Viva Wallet's founder, Haris Karonis, is suing JPMorgan, claiming the bank is hindering Viva Wallet's growth and blocking expansion to the U.S.
Takis Georgakopoulos
JPMorgan Chase
Tighter card-payment regulations could pressure JPMorgan and other card-issuing banks to develop different sources of revenue for payments, such as developing more embedded financial services projects or further growing digital payment offers and fintech partnerships, areas where Farooq and Neukirchen have worked in their positions at JPMorgan.
"JPMorgan sees regulatory actions as major threats to its business, and there are a lot of them," McPherson said, adding there are also economic challenges that could hinder payments growth.
Increases in consumer credit have led to an industrywide rise in charge-offs, from 2.45% in 2023 to a projected 3.4% in 2024 and 3.6% in 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office.. Persistently high inflation and slowing consumer spending could also threaten payments and banking in the year ahead.
"There is additionally a risk that the Federal Reserve will keep rates too high for too long, tipping the country into a recession," McPherson said.
The most interesting value-enhancing thing that JPMorgan could do to improve its payments capabilities for its customers and shareholders would be to acquire a debit network, said Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.
"Chase would enable its acquired network on all its debit cards. Where the acquired network was accepted, Chase would enjoy market interchange, roughly triple the Fed's proposed new debit-interchange price cap," Grover said.
Career path
The departing Georgakopoulos has been with JPMorgan for 17 years and was key to the bank's embrace of e-commerce, biometrics and blockchain, according to JPMorgan. On LinkedIn, Georgakopoulos said he is leaving the bank to pursue an opportunity outside of the firm, adding that the nature of this role would be announced "in due course."
During his time at JPMorgan, Georgakopoulos started with just seven reports, a number that grew to a global staff of more than 25,000.
"Now he is entering his highest earning years, so it is just good career management to graduate to maximize his return on life, not just his return on investment," said Richard Crone, a payments consultant.
Georgakopoulos is a visionary who led JPMorgan's most influential moves in payments, the most successful of which was clearXchange, the bank-led transfer app that eventually became Zelle, Crone said, likening Georgakopoulos to Dee Hock, the late founder of Visa who specialized in getting competitors to work together to build a large payment network.
"Both Georgakopoulos' successes and failures helped Chase, and galvanized his resolve for bringing competitors together again to launch Paze," Crone said of the bank-powered checkout system developed by Early Warning, which also manages Zelle.
"So there is the question of succession, and whether whoever takes Dimon's place is going to be able to be as successful as he has been," McPherson said.
