Former JPMorgan Chase executive Matt Zames will join the Trump administration as an unpaid advisor to the Social Security Administration, CNBC has learned.
Zames is being brought in to help his former JPMorgan colleague, Frank Bisignano, who became Social Security commissioner last year, tackle the modernization of the agency, according to people with knowledge of the move. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
He is scheduled to start Monday at the agency’s headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, where an office placard bearing his name has already been installed, one of the people said.
Zames, a former hedge fund trader, rose to prominence at JPMorgan after helping to clean up the bank’s $6 billion “London Whale” trading loss. He spent about five years as the bank’s chief operating officer, during which he led technology and cost reduction initiatives and was viewed as a leading candidate to succeed CEO Jamie Dimon before leaving in 2017.
The following year, he became president of private equity firm Cerberus, where he oversaw technology investments and helped turn around the firm’s stake in Deutsche Bank. After departing Cerberus in 2021, he started an advisory and restructuring firm.
Zames has also been a member of key Treasury and Federal Reserve advisory groups focused on debt markets.
He is joining an agency that relies on technology systems that are decades old. Additionally, the Social Security Administration is projected to exhaust its retirement trust fund in less than a decade, which could require benefit cuts for millions of Americans.
As a special government employee, Zames can hold the position for 130 days, that period could be spread across a longer timeframe because he will not be working full time, one of the people said.
The move adds a seasoned financial executive to an agency that manages benefits for millions of Americans amid growing concerns about the program’s financial future.
