The Most Powerful Women to Watch: No. 9, Liz Wolverton, Synovus

"It's been a really challenging year," said Liz Wolverton, the head of consumer banking at Synovus Financial , who ticked off pressing obstacles that include high interest rates and rival financial institutions with more resources to invest in technology.

Wolverton is in her third year leading consumer banking and brand experience at the Columbus, Georgia, bank. The $60 billion-asset Synovus is Georgia's largest bank.

Consumer banking revenue has leaped in her tenure, including a 38% year-over-year jump in 2023, to $489 million in pre-provision net revenue, which takes into account noninterest expenses. The rise is due to the higher interest rates the bank is charging, Wolverton said, plus a leaner operation after shutting down dozens of branches in 2022.

The biggest priority right now is consumer deposits, which inched up by 1% in 2023 from a year earlier, to $18.7 billion.

"The lending side is not as big of a pressure point on me," Wolverton said. "It's more on the deposit side of the house that we're trying to acquire customers."

In attracting customers, Wolverton said she deals with a "very disruptive deposit environment." For instance, higher rates led some affluent clients to withdraw from money market accounts in search of better returns.

One tool integral to retaining customers is My Synovus, which was launched last year to provide pop-up nuggets of information when clients check their accounts online.

Using artificial intelligence, My Synovus can urge people to do things such as review their dining expenses or provide alerts to potential duplicate transactions. Wolverton, who "nerds out" when it comes to studying consumer responses and finding the right language to get a client to react well to a prompt, said these "actionable and digestible" items have proven impactful.

"We get legitimate responses from our customers that say, 'You are helping me manage my money better,'" Wolverton said. "For somebody who's been in banking for 20 years at a regional bank that's not able to invest unlimited dollars every year in technology, to see My Synovus come together in a material way is really fun."

Wolverton joined Synovus in 2003 as the director of accounting and financial analysis, charged with helping the bank comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that governs financial recordkeeping. Her industry understanding was stretched anew during the 2008 financial crisis when she helped draft funding instruments for Synovus. That role put her in the executive room, and it altered a previously sought out path to become the company's chief financial officer.

A "willingness to step outside of finance" helped Wolverton's career trajectory, allowing her to guide the bank's strategic planning and brand experience, while developing a passion for how to best interact with customers.

The banker has started to apply that interest to the Columbus Museum, where she was elected to the board of directors in 2023 and serves as the board's head of strategic planning. The 70-year-old fine arts and culture museum, which is going through a $25 million renovation, is figuring out ways to better engage with younger patrons.

"The museum is like Synovus," Wolverton said. "The biggest risk for it is the potential loss of value due to a lack of change and adaptation."