The Most Powerful Women in Banking

Charlotte McLaughlin turned her family demands into a productivity driver at work. That helped get her to a point where she can now help more women scale the ladder.

If you carved out the Global Technology and Operations division from Bank of America, it would be one of the largest tech organizations in the world. Cathy Bessant leads this far-flung force of nearly 100,000 employees and contractors, overseeing all of the technology BofA uses to serve customers in 35 countries.

In the evolving payments landscape, no bank is an island. So Diane Reyes is making deeper engagement with critical business partners a primary focus as head of HSBC Payments and Cash Management.

Strategic collaboration is one of Leslie Godridge's strong suits. An example of this is a meeting she convened last year that was the most in-depth planning session of its kind since the formation of the National Corporate and Institutional Banking unit in 2007, and the results of it continue to play out.

Columbia Banking System's acquisition of the $2.4 billion-asset West Coast Bancorp is the latest of several deals Melanie Dressel has orchestrated over the past few years to fuel growth, as her community bank steadily progresses toward its goal of being more of a regional player in the Northwest.