JPMorgan Names PayPal’s John Frerichs Head of SMB Payments

J.P. Morgan has named PayPal veteran John Frerichs to oversee its SMB payments operations.

The appointment, announced Monday (May 22) in a news release provided to PYMNTS, marks a sort of homecoming, as Frerichs previously held a number of leadership roles in J.P. Morgan’s small and medium-sized business (SMB) space.

“This is a warm ‘welcome back’ to JPMorgan Chase for John,” said Max Neukirchen, the banking giant’s global head of payments and commerce solutions.

“His leadership will steer SMB Payments through the next exciting stage of evolution that will see our innovations scale, platforms continue to integrate and our collaboration across the firm supercharged.”

Prior to this new role, Frerichs spent a year with PayPal as that company’s vice president for global small/medium businesses.

At J.P. Morgan’s SMB payments business, he served as head of U.S. direct business, head of product and chief financial officer.

“We have an ambitious growth agenda for our SMB Payments franchise, bolstered by years of investment in the segment,” Neukirchen said. “I am confident under John’s leadership our global platform for SMB payments will go from strength to strength.”

The news comes weeks after J.P. Morgan acquired First Republic Bank, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) had seized amid one of the largest banking failures on record.

CEO Jamie Dimon said last week that J.P. Morgan is now integrating First Republic and that it “will further help advance our wealth as well as other initiatives.”

As PYMNTS reported at the time of the acquisition, J.P. Morgan gains $87.4 billion in First Republic deposits upon the deal’s closing.

Meanwhile, recent research by PYMNTS finds a great deal of SMBs worried about their financial future, per the report “Main Street Health Q1 2023,” a collaboration with Enigma.

While 43% of the businesses surveyed said inflation is their most pressing challenge, 23% cited economic uncertainty as their primary challenge, with some SMBs saying limited cash reserves were putting their ability to pay employees at risk.

That report also shows half of SMBs turning to credit or other loans, including personal mortgages, to keep their businesses afloat.

“Credit has already been drying up in the wake of the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional banks as 9% of SMBs report more problems securing their last loan than in previous attempts,” PYMNTS wrote recently in reference to the debt ceiling showdown. “Any extended debt ceiling debate could not come at a worse time, then, for SMBs seeking loans.”