The Most Powerful Women in Banking

Amy Carlson had to make a tough call last year about a business she had spent the three previous years building: whether to scale it back, hold steady or keep investing.

A lot of what Cathy Bessant knows about directing a team can be traced back to her days as patrol leader of her Girl Scouts troop.

Avid Modjtabai's big job at Wells Fargo got even bigger this year when she took on responsibility for the company's operations group and added its 10,000 employees to the 55,000 she already oversaw.

Innovation — whether nurturing it internally or keeping up with it externally — is of the highest priority for Diane Reyes. In keeping with that objective, she oversaw the launch of a fintech innovation lab in Singapore last fall.

Sandie O'Connor is at the forefront of high-level policy discussions currently shaping the banking industry.