The Most Powerful Women in Banking

Making banking easier for every customer is the mission of Mary Mack, who leads 67,000 employees in Wells Fargo's consumer and small-business banking division. Last year, Mack led the app's relaunch, making it easier to use and more secure for Wells customers. "There are alerts and speed bumps along the way to prevent fraud," she says.

When Nandita Bakhshi took a job as a part-time bank teller in 1986, she found an environment far removed from today's. "The expectation for anyone who didn't fit expectations was to conform as best we could to a very narrow definition of 'professionalism,' " says Bakhshi, who took the teller job after moving from India to the U.S. to support her husband's academic career. "Times have changed," she says.

In her fourth year as CEO of City National Bank, Kelly Coffey is expanding the types of lending her bank offers while also increasing diversity in her leadership team. Since Coffey was named CEO in February 2019, business has grown substantially.

As U.S. Bancorp's vice chair and chief administrative officer, Kate Quinn is leading a $573 billion-asset company she says is focused on "meeting customers where they are and how they want to do business." Quinn joined the bank in 2013 and was appointed to the chief administrative role in 2017.

Discovery Federal Credit Union in Wyomissing has promoted its chief information officer, Michele Smith, to succeed Edwin Williams as CEO. Smith assumed her new role effective October 1.