JPMorgan’s Top Retail Banking Lawyer Biben Said to Depart 

Matthew Biben, general counsel for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM:US)’s retail-banking operations, has left after three years at the firm, a person with knowledge of the move said.

Jill Centella, global litigation head for the New York-based lender, was named acting general counsel for consumer and community banking in June, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information hasn’t been made public. JPMorgan is the largest U.S. bank by assets.

Biben managed more than 425 lawyers and helped negotiate JPMorgan’s share of the industry’s $25 billion foreclosure settlement in 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. The firm’s retail division had $21.9 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2014, the most of the bank’s four main businesses, according to a financial statement.

Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for JPMorgan, declined to comment. Biben didn’t immediately return a telephone message or e-mail seeking comment.

Biben earlier spent 12 years working for the government, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the New York County District Attorney’s Office, according to his profile. He graduated from Cornell University in 1989 and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1992.

He joined Bank of New York Mellon Corp. as a deputy general counsel in 2004 and was hired by JPMorgan in 2011 as its lead lawyer for mortgage banking. In 2012, he was promoted to oversee the legal department for all of the firm’s retail businesses including credit cards, auto financing and consumer and business banking. Gordon Smith, 55, heads the consumer bank.

 

Source: businessweek

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