Trump admin taps former JPMorgan Chase exec Matt Zames to advise Social Security agency

• JPM

Matt Zames, then-chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase, center, in New York, Feb. 27, 2017.

Kholood Eid | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former JPMorgan Chase executive Matt Zames will join the Trump administration as an advisor to the Social Security agency, CNBC has learned.

Zames is taking an unpaid position to help his former JPMorgan colleague Frank Bisignano, who became Social Security Commissioner last year, tackle modernization of the agency, said people with knowledge of the move.

He starts Monday at Social Security Administration headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, where an office placard bearing his name has already been installed, said one of the people familiar. CNBC's sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the move publicly.

Zames, a former hedge fund trader who rose to prominence at JPMorgan after helping clean up the bank's $6 billion "London Whale" mess, was its chief operating officer for about five years. He spearheaded technology and cost-cutting projects at the lender and was seen as a top contender to succeed CEO Jamie Dimon until his departure in 2017.

The next year, Zames became president of private equity firm Cerberus, where he oversaw tech investments and helped turn around the firm's Deutsche Bank stake. After leaving Cerberus in 2021, Zames started an advisory and restructuring firm.

Zames — who has also had positions on key Treasury and Federal Reserve advisory groups tied to the debt markets — is joining an agency that relies on decades-old technology systems.

Beyond the technology issues, the SSA is projected to exhaust its retirement trust fund in less than a decade, which could require benefit cuts to millions of Americans.

As a special government employee, Zames can hold his new position for 130 days, but that could be spread over a longer period of time because he won't be working full-time, said one of the sources.