American Banker Magazine - May 2021

Most Powerful Women in Banking: Next

Many of the 15 executives selected for our Most Powerful Women in Banking: Next list are in roles that took on outsize importance in a year punctuated by a global pandemic, economic free fall and widespread protests over police brutality and racial inequality.

The Silicon Valley payments giant collaborates with incumbent banks. But its plan to launch a single mobile app where consumers will shop, make payments and manage their money is reinforcing long-held industry fears about the threat from Big Tech.

Loans and tax-subsidized investments by financial institutions have helped fund food markets and pantries in low-income communities. But there is still more work to do to close the grocery gap.

Some banks offer it, but the availability and amount of paid time off for employees to bond with a newborn, recover from a serious illness or care for a sick family member shouldn't be up to employers. It should be the law.

Banks' family leave policies need to evolve with a new workforce that increasingly views fathers as equal caregivers.

The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low to reduce unemployment and to keep prices stable. But in “Engine of Inequality," Karen Petrou argues that its accommodative stance is actually making the wealth gap wider.