JPMorgan CFO Change Helps Put Whale In Rear View

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It's full steam ahead for JPMorgan Chase (JPM), as the company puts its hedge trading debacle further behind it and investors look ahead to a further return of capital.

JPMorgan Chase on Monday announced that Marianne Lake would take over from Douglas Braunstein as the company's new chief financial officer in January, and would join the company's Operating Committee, reporting to CEO James Dimon. Lake currently serves as the CFO for JPMorgan Chase's Consumer & Community Banking unit.

Braunstein will be moved upstairs, becoming a vice chairman of the company, to "focus on serving top clients of the firm - drawing on his years of expertise and experience in key client coverage roles in our Investment Bank."

UBS analyst Brennan Hawken on Monday said that Lake's appointment was "largely expected," and that her membership in the Operating Committee "restores the prior reporting structure for JPM's CFO, which was adjusted this summer in the wake of the CIO trading loss."

Hawken added that "although the firm has indicated Mr. Braunstein stepping down was not related to the whale trade, we expect some investors may view this as another step in putting that issue to rest."

CIO refers to JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, responsible for the now infamous "London Whale" hedge trade, which led to $4.4 billion in trading losses during the second quarter, as the company worked to unwind a very large hedge position. The company still managed to earn $5 billion during the second quarter, with earnings increasing to $5.7 billion in the third quarter.

Following the completion of the last round of Federal Reserve stress tests in March, JPMorgan raised its quarterly dividend by a nickel to 30 cents a share, and its board of directors authorized a new share repurchase plan, with the Fed approving $12 billion in buybacks for 2012, followed by another $3 billion in buybacks for the first quarter of 2013. After Dimon in May first announced the hedge trading problem and provided a preliminary loss estimate, the company suspended its $15 billion share repurchase program, after buying back just $1.6 billion worth of shares.

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