In these tough times for consumer lenders, it's hard to believe that one possible successor to J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is Gordon Smith, who is in charge of the bank's credit card operations and undertaking an ambitious expansion effort.

Reuters notes that Chase's credit card business is second in size only to American Express's, "and contributed 12 percent of JPMorgan's $17.4 billion of profits last year. If Smith pulls off the transformation, the rewards could be handsome."

In many ways, he's trying to ape American Express, where he worked for 26 years, by building a premium service oriented around wealthy consumers that merchants will be willing to pay up for. This has been tried many times, but few have been able to make inroads on America Express's turf. There are signs that the bank is carving out a bit more market share at the expense of Bank of America and Citigroup.

To be sure, we could be standing at the edge of a golden opportunity. As more banks move to raise fees on debit cards, many think that consumers will consider trending back to the old standby credit card. Now that the bank's credit card default risks are under control, it might be in for a growth spurt.Needless to say credit cards are fabulously profitable for banks, as long as the retail customer does his or her part by paying the required interest. 

For now, the future looks good for Gordon. Dimon has been giving him more responsibility as of late.

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