Special Program Root Tag

Last January, Discover and Facebook became friends. In a partnership put together by Diane Offereins' team in payment services, Discover teamed up with the social media network to roll out the Facebook Card, a prepaid product that can be used to send gifts to friends via their Facebook profile.

Since taking over in 2010 as chief of Charles Schwab's investment management division, Marie Chandoha has overseen an ETF business that has grown from $2.7 billion in assets under management to $12 billion as of this May.

Much of the concern over controversial Dodd-Frank rule "1073" has been allayed by the work of wholesale service providers like Citi's Institutional Clients Group and its head of public sector and bank services, Julie Monaco.

In 1994 Jennifer Steans and her father co-founded Financial Investments Corp. to handle the family's substantial fortune and to explore bank investment opportunities that led to ownership stakes in both USAmeriBank in Florida and Cole Taylor Bank in Chicago.

One of Carrie Tolstedt's many challenges these days is making sure customers who interact with Wells Fargo have a more positive and more personalized experience. It's no small feat, but so far, so good.

Pamela Joseph is the highest-ranking woman at U.S. Bancorp and leads business lines that consistently generate about a quarter of the company's revenue and more than a third of its fee income each year.

In her role overseeing the massive consumer lending operations at Wells Fargo, Avid Modjtabai is at the forefront of the flux rippling through the industry.

"I tell my team today-you always need to be 'on'," says Citigroup's Cece Stewart, and it is, judging by the metrics Stewart has amassed since joining Citi in January 2011. She has presided over growth in average deposits, average loans, investment sales and mortgage originations.

Huntington added more than a branch a week last year. The architect of the expansion, Mary Navarro, helped increase customer households last year by 12 percent, more than three times the industry average and more than Huntington grew in the three previous years combined.

From the TNS Choice Award for direct banking to Money Magazine ranking it as the best online bank for a second straight year, the accolades for Ally Bank continue to pile up. Barbara Yastine rightfully claims some credit.

Sandie O'Connor role managing JPMorgan Chase's relationships with regulators has taken on new significance, given the company's involvement in dustups on assorted regulatory fronts, but the drama hasn't prevented O'Connor from addressing more workaday concerns.

In her role overseeing marketing, communications, public policy and corporate social responsibility for Bank of America, Anne Finucane leads a massive effort to redefine the company's tarnished image.

Patricia Callahan works on many fronts to shape how Wells Fargo is viewed both by the public and by its own employees. That's a function of her daily duties, but it took on heightened importance for her last year as Wells rolled out new ads focused squarely on reputation.

Next to industry giants, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank is about as tiny as it sounds. Dorothy Savarese, its president and CEO, is likewise petite. But such surface details belie the influence she is bringing to bear not only in her community, but across her home state of Massachusetts and in the nation's capital.

Royal Bank of Canada initiated some major strategic moves in the past year, and Janice Fukakusa has been instrumental in bringing them to fruition.

Deborah McWhinney is a guiding force in Citigroup's stated intention of becoming the world's leading digital bank.

Like others in the banking industry, KeyCorp had to scramble to make up for revenue lost to regulatory changes, and much of this maneuvering fell to Maria Coyne.

LeeAnne Linderman has long been in charge of Zions First National Bank's network of 128 branches in Utah and Idaho. Now she also has oversight of 172 ATMs, online and mobile banking, and whatever other emerging technology might come along.

The outstanding results Alberta Cefis posted last year — improving revenue, deposit balances, expense control, risk management and so on — extend a streak of contributions she has made going back more than 14 years, to when she joined Scotiabank.

Michelle Van Dyke's definition of power is not based on how big her territory is (it covers parts of five states and holds $25 billion of Fifth Third's assets) or how many employees she is responsible for (5,500). To her, power comes from being a role model and paving the way for others.