The Latest from Women in Banking

As the head of the largest woman-run hedge fund in the United States, it's easy to understand why Anne Dias Griffin has made this list for a third consecutive year.

In a year of upheaval, these women stood out for their leadership, their coolness under pressure, and their continued drive to innovate.

Liz Ann Sonders says her job is to educate, rather than make predictions. "I differ from my CIO brethren in that I'm not asked to make bombastic forecasts about where the S&P will close at year end," she says. "I'm really just supposed to interpret what's going on."

Kathy Elsesser, a Goldman managing director since 2002 and partner since 2004, and head of its consumer retail group in investment banking, has used every ounce of her energy to keep her team on track.

Many executives take pride in quickly making judgment calls. But what Paula Rosput Reynolds learned in an arduous year as vice chairman and chief restructuring officer at the embattled AIG was the value of a carefully formed opinion.

Suzanne Shank can make competing with the big guys on Wall Street sound ho-hum. "You can have a lot of bodies, but if you have a good group of people with good connections you can do a pretty good job."

Mellody Hobson, the president of Ariel Investments in Chicago, is a ubiquitous presence in the media, educating the public about the importance of responsible investing.

These highly profitable banks all have one thing in common: women in key roles.

With nearly a quarter of U.S. Bancorp's revenues derived from the corporate and institutional payments group led by vice chair Pamela Joseph, the retail business of the Minneapolis banking company can sometimes get overlooked. Not this year.

In 2004, a dozen top female executives at what was then The Bank of New York decided to establish an internal networking group to help mid-level female executives break out of their shells. Five years later, the Women's Initiatives Network (WIN) at what is now BNY Mellon has more 2,000 members.