When ex-Republic Bank of New York executives Joseph DePaolo and John Tamberlane were sketching out their business plan for what would become Signature Bank, they really had no intention of starting a bank at all.

Simone Lagomarsino has helped turn around a lot of banks, but she'd never seen one in such bad shape. Yet in a phenomenally short amount of time, Lagomarsino has righted the ship at Heritage Oaks Bancorp.

Though many banks have capitalized on the financial crisis, Home BancShares is a leader among that group. It scooped up seven failed banks in Florida and bought two more open, but deeply distressed, ones, a tally few can top.

He has blanketed the eastern half of the country with Wells Fargo branches, kept earnings on an upward streak for 15 straight quarters and avoided many of the pitfalls of his big bank brethren. He may never be as outspoken as his predecessor (or even counterparts like JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon), and his company may never be a perfect symbol of the small-town values he champions. But five years after the acquisition of Wachovia, Wells Fargo's chairman and CEO has fully come into his own.

How nice it is when our capacity for being judgmental starts to be replaced with a capacity for making sound judgments.

In late 2010, a small team of strategists was assembled at Citigroup and told to be visionary. The result? Money² for Health, a payments dive into the U.S. health care sector.

• Paypal President David Marcus
• State Street Chief Scientist David Saul
• Bitcoin
• Photo Capture Bill Pay

From his participation in economic development plans to personally recruiting construction funds and sponsorships for the BOK Center, BOK Financial's retiring CEO, Stanley Lybarger, has been a central figure in the rebirth of downtown Tulsa.

By the time David Marcus became its president last year, PayPal—one of the most successful technology startups of the late 1990s—had taken on the culture of an entrenched player in payments.

He is perhaps banking's leading expert on the subject, but David Saul doesn't much care for the phrase "big data."

In January, customers of the $4.9 billion-asset First Financial Bank in Abilene, Texas, began paying bills by taking a picture of them with a smartphone or tablet. A few months later, U.S. Bank became the first big bank to roll out a photo bill pay service.

Bitcoin has received a lot of attention this year, for all the wrong reasons.

Excerpts from an interview with John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, who sat down with us for the "Banker of the Year" profile featured in the December issue of American Banker Magazine.

John Stumpf, Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, has kept his bank profitable for 15 record-breaking quarters, presided over its expansion from coast to coast, and steered clear of the worst regulatory troubles following his biggest competitors. American Banker editors discuss why he is the Banker of the Year for 2013.

There were dividend increases, record profits and promising growth initiatives in businesses such as credit cards. But with the pressure on the company's mighty mortgage business intensifying, it wasn't all smooth sailing for American Banker's Banker of the Year.

What does it take to be an effective leader? Here's some insight from our bankers of the year, John Stumpf, Simone Lagomarsino, Joseph DePaolo and Johnny Allison.

The 66-year-old chairman of Home BancShares in Conway, Ark., sure does tell it like it is. Here are some of his more colorful quotes and the stories we enjoyed most.

Though bankers generally applauded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule on mortgage disclosures, they are raising concerns that some of the changes need to be fixed or they'll have no choice but to assess higher fees at the closing.

Cash America agrees to pay $19 million to settle charges that it illegally robo-signed documents, overcharged members of the military, and stymied a CFPB examination by destroying and withholding information.

Big banks have not done enough in the five years since the financial crisis to make themselves more socially responsible corporations, according to a report released Wednesday by a shareholder advocacy group.

Community groups are uniting to protest Regions Financial's (RF) short-term loan program, calling on the Birmingham, Ala., company to ditch its "Ready Advance" product.