JPMorgan Chase CIO Guy Chiarello is quitting his post after seven-and-a-half years in the top tech spot at the US's biggest bank.
His surprise departure was announced in an internal memo circulated to bank staff by chief administrative officer Paul Compton. The memo, seen by the Wall Street Journal, said Chiarello had "decided to pursue new opportunities outside the firm".
During his tenure at JPMorgan Chase, Chiarello oversaw the ingestion of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual as the bank proved its mettle during the financial crisis.
Mike Ashworth, a 27-year veteran of the firm and the bank's head of global technology infrastructure, has been apointed interim CIO until a replacement can be found.
The new appointee will take responsiblity for an $8 billion annual technology budget and a team of over 20,000 technology staff worldwide.
In February, the bank announced plans to cut its headcount by 4000 jobs over the coming year as it bids to save $1 billion in annual expenses from its consumer banking business.
Most of the job cuts will come through a process of attrition as the bank looks to add more technology to its branch network for dealing with routine transactions, and moves away from a reliance on big iron legacy tech to a more agile big data-driven business utilising new Web technologies.