Harrison to step down as JPMorgan chairman

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman William Harrison plans to retire from the third-biggest U.S. bank at the end of the year and expects to hand the post to Chief Executive Jamie Dimon.

Harrison, 63, will leave Dec. 31 after spending his entire career at the New York-based bank and its predecessors, JPMorgan said. Dimon, 50, succeeded him as CEO in January, six months earlier than planned.

Harrison joined Chemical Banking Corp. in 1967 and helped engineer some of the biggest bank mergers in history, including acquisitions of Chase Manhattan Corp. and J.P. Morgan & Co. His last major takeover as CEO, the 2004 purchase of Bank One Corp. for $58 billion, brought Dimon to the company.