JPMorgan names Barry Sommers to head consumer bank

JPMorgan Chase said it has appointed Barry Sommers, under whom the bank expanded its services to wealthy clients, to head its Chase consumer bank business.

Sommers, 44, who previously served as chief executive of the bank's wealth management business, joined JP Morgan through the Bear Sterns merger in 2008.

Sommers was responsible for the company's Chase Private Client business, which has offices in nearly 1,400 Chase bank branches.

JP Morgan is using its private client business to make money from its branches at a time when more and more banking transactions are taking place online.

The company's consumer bank has a network of about 5,600 branches across the United States and generated about $14 billion in revenue.

Sommers replaces Ryan McInerney, who has been named by Visa Inc as its president.

At Visa, McInerney will report to Chief Executive Charlie Scharf. Scharf also joined the credit card company from JPMorgan, where he headed retail banking operations.

Scharf had hired McInerney several years ago to work for him at JPMorgan Chase, McInerney told Reuters.

McInerney, 37, will replace John Partridge, who retired on March 31. He will receive an annual salary of $750,000, Visa said in a regulatory filing.

JP Morgan is one of the largest issuers of Visa cards. It issued about 69.6 million Visa cards in 2012, according to a February 2013 Nilson report.

Cards issued by Chase, including credit, debit and prepaid, account for about 16 percent of spending on Visa cards, according to the report.

The companies this year entered a new 10-year renewable partnership agreement under which JP Morgan will launch a payment platform powered by Visa.

JP Morgan shares were down 0.7 percent at $53, while Visa was down 1.1 percent at $178.38 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Aman Shah in Bangalore, Additional Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Robin Paxton and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)