For JP Morgan, the third-largest bank in America in terms of revenue behind Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America, the 63-year-old Adams oversees a US$7 billion annual technology budget and 19,000 IT staffers world-wide, though much of that is controlled by JP Morgan's lines of business.

He also sat on the 15-member operating committee at JP Morgan, which had $1.01 trillion in assets at the end of 2005 according to the Federal Reserve.

His replacement is expected to be named before Oct. 1, said JP Morgan spokesman Tom Kelly.

Adams, whose departure was first announced internally in mid-July in a memo from CEO Jamie Dimon, is wrapping up a final technology integration project related to the June 2004 merger of JP Morgan and Chicago-based Bank One Corp.

Adams, who joined JP Morgan from Bank One where he had also been CIO, is best known for terminating a seven-year, $5 billion outsourcing contract with IBM in September 2004 that had been signed by his predecessor. The contract was considered the single largest IT outsourcing deal ever and was hailed at the time of its signing as a harbinger of future big deals.