The Latest from Women in Banking

For years, Sound Community Bank in Seattle organized its workforce around bank branches and specialists for retail lending, commercial banking and home mortgage. But in the last year, "we threw all that out the window," said Laura Lee Stewart. 

Julieann Thurlow is working to ensure that smaller institutions don't get left behind as the megabanks make better use of new technology. 

Not only does the banking industry have a problem developing more female senior leaders, it also struggles with ethnic diversity. Kimberly Moore-Wright is working to change that.

Patricia Husic co-founded Centric Financial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2007. Then came the Great Recession. 

Cathy Owen has been in the banking industry for almost 50 years, so she well remembers the days when she was the lone woman among her peers. 

Wendy Cai-Lee launched Piermont bank in 2019 with a goal of helping entrepreneurs access financial services through a digital platform. 

Irene Oh has been chief financial officer of East West Bank since 2010. Under her leadership, the bank's total assets grew from $20 billion to $61 billion as of the end of 2021.

As chief audit officer at BNY Mellon, Paulette Mullings Bradnock was charged with keeping tabs on the whereabouts, utilization and movement of almost $500 billion in assets.

As part of American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance program, we have selected five Top Teams for 2022.

For Marianne Lake, innovation is not a straight line. "You can zig, you can zag, you can bob, you can weave, you can iterate and that's how you get to the right place," Lake said during a moderated discussion held on JPMorgan Chase's "Women on the Move" leadership day in October 2021.