Jeffrey P. Neubert, former chief executive officer of Bank One Corp.'s payment services division, has been named president of the New York Clearing House Association.
Mr. Neubert, 57, will start his new position - which has been vacant more than a year - Jan. 3. A big part of the job will be to address technological advances that are presenting both opportunities and threats to bank members of the clearing house, one of the oldest and most influential in the payments business.
The nine-year Bank One veteran, who has held various retail posts at the Chicago company, will succeed Jill M. Considine. Ms. Considine stepped down in November 1998 to become chairman and chief executive officer of Depository Trust Co.
Mr. Neubert will remain a consultant to Paymentech, a joint venture of Bank One and First Data Corp., through the end of the year. He has been a consultant to Paymentech since July.
Mr. Neubert said he is no stranger to the Internet and the adjustments it necessitates. He seemed confident that the association got what it was looking for: "somebody who can help envision the future and develop a strategy that will keep the clearing house at the center of the payments business."
Charles Renyi, chairman of the association, said in a press release that Mr. Neubert is a "strong addition to our management team and will help us drive our business forward." Mr. Renyi is also chairman and CEO of Bank of New York.
Mr. Neubert said the challenges facing the clearing house include financial modernization and the prospect that banks will be disintermediated from their role in the payments system.
The association, which was formed in 1853 as a nonprofit utility to clear checks for New York banks, operates the Clearing House Interbank Payments System, a large-value payments network owned by 77 banks in 26 countries. The network settles $1.2 trillion a day, or one-fifth of all funds transferred in the world.
The group is the primary automated clearing house network operator in the second Federal Reserve district - it processes $9.5 billion of such payments a day for 952 financial institutions.
In restructuring itself as a for-profit entity, the clearing house last year spun off Chips and SVP Co., its electronic check presentment operation, which is owned by 22 of the largest U.S. banks. It plans to merge its automated clearing house operations into SVP Co.
Mr. Neubert is one of a slew of Bank One executives who have left the Chicago-based banking company in recent months. Richard Vague, former chairman and chief executive officer of First USA, stepped down in October. James Stewart 3d, president and chief executive of WingspanBank, First USA's Internet bank, resigned soon after. Also in October, Richard Lehmann, a vice chairman of Bank One, said he would retire by the end of this year. David Vitale, another vice chairman, left in July.
Bank One inherited an interest in Paymentech - a former competitor - by acquiring First USA in 1997. In July, Bank One combined its payment services division with Paymentech and put Paymentech CEO Pamela Patsley in charge of the merged operation.
