The Most Powerful Women in Banking

In her daily duties at BNY, Smits, who is originally from the Netherlands and now based in Britain, leads the bank's seven investment firms which have a combined $2 trillion in assets.

Milrod has led the bank's foray into digital finance and its efforts to become more product-driven.

Martin manages NYSE's five equity exchanges — NYSE, NYSE Arca, NYSE American, NYSE National and NYSE Chicago — plus its two options exchanges, NYSE Arca Options and NYSE American Options. 

As managing partner at Edward Jones, Pennington's in charge of 8 million clients, more than 19,500 financial advisors and $2.1 trillion assets under management.

Knox leads more than 4,500 professionals at Bank of America Private Bank, which generates $3.6 billion in annual revenue and has $640 billion in client balances from high-net-worth individuals, families and institutions.