2026 The Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Teams

The Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Teams

Published October 1, 2026 7:03 AM

1 Min Read

What do HSBC, Sound Community Bank, BNP Paribas, Mizuho Americas and Fifth Third have in common? Each of these five companies has an outstanding woman-led business unit or group ranked as part of The Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Teams 2026.

For this ranking, banks are evaluated on several quantitative and qualitative factors, including the innovative nature of what the team developed, the resulting business, operational or enterprise outcomes generated by the team, and the total number of women involved.

Ranked the #1 team this year for its Innovation Banking launch is HSBC, co-led by Sunita Patel, U.S. head of investor coverage and business development. Innovation Banking—a startup within the walls of the bank—was instigated by a group of former Silicon Valley Bank executives who joined HSBC and wanted to build a team catering to the financial needs of startups and venture-backed enterprises.

The early results are notable: By June 2025, the Innovation Banking team posted a 50%-plus gain in deposits and a 25%-plus gain in loan commitments, as well as a 50% compound annual growth rate in annualized revenue.

Rounding out this year's top teams are Sound Community Bank, led by Heidi Sexton, EVP and COO, for its Fraud Committee (#2); BNP Paribas, led by Vanessa Dager, head of North American M&A, for its North American M&A unit (#3); Mizuho Americas, led by Michal Katz, head of investment and corporate banking, for its Banking Chief Operating Office (#4); and Fifth Third, led by Melissa Stevens, CMO, for its Women of Integration initiative (#5).

With all five teams, the spirit of innovation and collaboration laid the groundwork for future business growth and performance-driven results.

Read the other rankings:

The Most Powerful Women in Banking

The Most Powerful Women in Finance

The Most Powerful Women to Watch

The Most Powerful Women in Banking NEXT

HSBC

Innovation Banking

When a group of former executives from Silicon Valley Bank joined HSBC in 2023, they became the core of an innovation banking team catering to startups and venture-backed enterprises.

The team started without any clients. But they had the backing of an international bank and a newfound appreciation for what it takes to get a business off the ground.

"We all took a massive leap of faith coming off of a period of incredible disruption professionally, but also personally," said Katherine Andersen, U.S. head of life science and healthcare banking at HSBC. She held a similar role at SVB before its collapse. "I have much more appreciation and perspective, let's say, in serving the innovation ecosystem—what it is to build and launch and scale a startup."

Sound Community Bank

Fraud Committee

Heidi Sexton is Sound Community Bank's chief fraud fighter. Sexton, the bank's executive vice president and chief operating officer, leads its two-year-old fraud committee.

The committee's work is paying dividends: it lowered the bank's fraud-related expenses by more than 33%—from $189,000 in 2024 to about $126,000 in 2025. The $1 billion community bank is on track this year to further reduce those expenses by nearly 60% compared with last year, to about $51,000. In addition, the bank said its anti-fraud initiative prevented more than $700,000 in fraud in 2025.

The fraud committee brings together employees from the retail, operations, compliance, anti-money laundering and technology departments. Each month, the committee reviews fraud activity and trends, discusses anti-fraud strategies, monitors fraud losses, evaluates fraud detection systems and considers other fraud-related matters.

BNP Paribas

North America M&A

Vanessa Dager is building the BNP Paribas U.S. M&A banking practice from scratch, which is practically unheard of. Every hire, strategy and process belongs to her.

"It's very scary, and a lot of work," Dager says, but she's thrilled to take on the challenge.

Dager, head of North America M&A at BNP Paribas, joined the bank in the summer of 2023. At the time, BNP had no M&A or equity capital markets desk in the U.S., and Dager's remit was to build one.

"This is not an M&A job like in other places where you're part of a big group where everything works," Dager said. "It's been great, because in any other job, usually you're plugged into an M&A group that is already there, even if you're heading the group."

The Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Teams

HSBC

Sound Community Bank

BNP Paribas

Mizuho Americas

Fifth Third Bank