The Latest from Women in Banking

How an uncommon knack for bridging different cultures helped Nandita Bakhshi rise to the top job at Bank of the West.

Candi Wolff of Citigroup and Anita Eoloff of Wells Fargo are two of the most powerful banking lobbyists in the nation’s capital, but they don’t think the transformation of their once male-dominated field is done, nor do they think everything about the past should be abandoned.

When Laura Sikora interviewed at BMO Financial 20 years ago, she was struck by the fact that several people asked her what she wanted to do next. She got the message that her aspirations were important to the company, and now she has spearheaded a new micromentoring program to give others help with realizing their career goals. Employees who have specific skills they want to improve can get matched up with a colleague for some customized coaching sessions.

Centric Financial is one of the few publicly traded banking companies with women in the chief executive and chief financial officer roles. Centric is also distinctive for its enviable growth and performance. Those two facts are not purely coincidental, according to President and CEO Patricia Husic.

Women at JPMorgan Chase don't just settle for the formal check-the-box networking groups. Their grassroots efforts have launched multiple programs to raise the profile of women at the company and help them advance, including a new "30-5-1" campaign inspired by Marianne Lake. Other examples include the globe-trotting Women on the Move initiative and the ReEntry program to help ex-bankers return to the workforce after extended time off.

There's a lot to be done now that KeyCorp has closed on its deal for First Niagara, and it's telling who has been put in charge of the many different facets of the integration. While some might have just a few token women on their leadership team, Key can boast about the diversity of its bench strength.

For several years, Zions Bank has monitored salaries to ensure women aren't being paid less than men for comparable work. Last year, the monitoring went from a semiannual review to a constant lookout.

What it takes to excel goes far beyond the daily work a job entails. It's about having the courage to be who you are, stand up for what you believe in, overcome great adversity, and make the world better in a way that is uniquely yours. Here are four executives who have done just that.
• Create a Ripple Effect: JPMorgan's Stacey Friedman
• Be Like a Puffer Fish: Barclays' Barbara Byrne
• Have the Courage to Believe: BBVA's Rosilyn Houston
• Power Through Adversity: First United's Karen Glenn

Among the impressive women you'll want to keep an eye on moving forward are: two new female CEOs at top-40 banks; Mary Mack, who'll now oversee consumer banking at embattled Wells Fargo; and community bank CEOs Mary Anny Scully and Karen Glenn.

Women are arguably even more outnumbered in the upper ranks of finance than in banking, and the executives on this list stand out not only for their performance but for their work to help create a path to parity.