According to a memo released by banking heavyweight, JPMorgan, Eileen Serra, its CEO of Chase Card Services, will be leaving the role in January 2016. Serra, who has led the unit since 2012, will be replaced by Kevin Watters, the bank’s incumbent CEO of mortgage banking.
Watters has a large task ahead matching Serra’s achievements in the division
Under the helm of Serra, JPMorgan’s credit card division has emerged as an industry leader with a finely tuned marketing strategy that actively promotes cardholder services to the bank’s 60 million users. Serra’s success in the role has also secured her reputation in the industry, having been ranked among the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for the past three consecutive years.
Before her promotion at JPMorgan, Serra headed card consumer-branded products and was responsible for the bank’s mass affluent and high net worth customer divisions. Prior to joining JPMorgan in 2006, Serra served as the Managing Director and Head of Private Client Banking Solutions at Merrill Lynch, and has also held executive roles American Express and McKinsey & Company.
Watters has a large task ahead matching Serra’s achievements in the division, but being a JPMorgan veteran himself and having successfully managed business banking during a very difficult period, it seems he is certainly up for the challenge. “He took over the business at perhaps the most challenging time in the cycle and transformed it into a profitable, customer focused, less volatile business with strong controls and an excellent leadership team,” wrote Gordon Smith, JPMorgan’s CEO of consumer and community banking, in the memo – according to Business Insider.
