The Most Powerful Women in Banking

The last two years have been transformative ones for Howard Bank in Ellicott City, Md., and much of the credit goes to Mary Ann Scully, its chairman, president and chief executive.

An analytical mind; a drive to improve; a sense of humility; a leadership gene. Nandita Bakhshi identified these four traits as key in her move up to CEO.

Ellen Alemany came out of retirement in the past year to continue a turnaround effort underway at the $66.7 billion-asset CIT Group. She's got her work cut out for her.

Of all that Mary Mack accomplished running Wells Fargo's brokerage operations — adding teams of new advisers in key markets, substantially improving her unit's customer satisfaction ratings — perhaps what stood out most was her group's success in attracting new business from the banking side of the house.

It took just eight months for Cate Luzio to earn her first promotion at HSBC. Luzio joined the global bank in December 2014 as head of multinational coverage for the Americas. Her group produced results so quickly that in August 2015, HSBC assigned Luzio the same role globally.