Special Program Root Tag

The British government's rescue of The Royal Bank of Scotland last year has thrust Ellen Alemany, the head of its U.S. operations, into an unfamiliar role: turnaround specialist.

Anne Arvia, who has been named to US Banker's rankings of "The 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking" four times, came to Nationwide after 15 years at ShoreBank in Chicago.

Anne Finucane, BofA's global chief strategy and marketing officer, has an outsized role at the company. Whether its brand positioning, marketing, or communications across all lines of business, Finucane is the go-to voice of the banking giant.

Ellen Costello, president and chief executive of Harris Bankcorp in Chicago, refuses to let the economic downturn get her or her 4,000 employees down.

Colleen Johnston is taking swimming lessons this fall, as she works toward her goal of completing a sprint triathlon. Mind you, she has a fear of swimming.

The top retail-banking executive at BBVA Compass was a little frustrated a week after the Alabama bank took over Guaranty Bank of Austin, Tex., in an FDIC-arranged match.

For Diane Reyes, winning a client comes down to establishing trust. In one instance last year, Reyes was trying to secure a contract with Kuwait's national oil company.

Kay Hoveland never intended to become a banker. But in 1973 she applied for a loan at a credit union to buy flooring and appliances for the home she was building with her family.

It's been tough being a banker over the past year, when "bank" has often been considered "a four-letter word," says LeeAnne Linderman of Zions First National Bank. "This has been the most challenging ... "

Few women in banking draw as much attention as Sallie Krawcheck. A mainstay on lists of powerful women, Krawcheck joined Bank of America in August to take over its brokerage and wealth management operations.

In November of last year, Morgan Stanley appointed Cece Sutton president of the new retail banking group. Bank deposits grew to $46.8B by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Among her peers, Citigroup's Jane Fraser may stand out just for the sheer number of air miles she logged last year while leading the troubled company's re-engineering effort.

Long days are the norm now for Pat Callahan, the executive vice president in charge of integrating the former Wachovia into the now nearly $1.3 trillion-asset Wells Fargo.

Earlier this year, as many bankers moved cautiously through chaos, Bank of America's Cathy Bessant forged ahead, focused on making a deal. The result: A joint venture agreement with First Data.

The recession has not made president Nancy Wolcott's life easy. The group's enterprise investor services business ranks as the No. 1 sub-accounting provider in the U.S. and No. 2 full-service mutual fund transfer agent in the U.S.

Diana Starcher says tackling the task of combining Wells Fargo & Co.'s customer service channel with Wachovia's is a lot like learning to downhill ski. "You're trained when you first begin skiing not to look down to the bottom of the mountain."

Recessions have been surprisingly good to Beth Mooney, and she's doing all she can to make sure this one works out well, too. Mooney got into banking in the mid-1970s downturn, scoring the only job she could find out of college: as a secretary at a Texas bank.

Just one woman leads risk management among the 15 largest banks. It is Mary Tuuk. And Tuuk, who reports to CEO Kevin Kabat, is bullish on the broad role risk managers play.

It would seem almost impossible for Terri Dial to look bad as CEO of Citigroup's North American banking operations. If she manages to turn around the business, Dial will be a hero. And if she doesn't, who would blame her, given that Citigroup must offload $600 billion in so-called "noncore" assets, many of which are troubled?

While many policymakers were still describing the housing crisis as "contained," Molly Sheehan knew better. The JPMorgan Chase executive saw the payment shock brewing as a wave of hybrid adjustable mortgages were due to reset at higher rates, and she was determined to get ahead of it.