The Most Powerful Women in Banking

As chief marketing officer and chief innovation officer at AXA Equitable, Barbara Goodstein is responsible for all of AXA Equitable's digital efforts, corporate communications and advertising. In this time of shaky investor confidence, Goodstein and her team have focused on conveying a consistent message across multiple channels.

Goldman Sachs pushed away the rumors and calmed the frayed nerves concerning its own health, and Liz Beshel played an essential role in that effort as the firm's treasurer.

During 19 years at MasterCard, Joan Kelly has helped lead the development of systems that now process more than 21 billion payment transactions and settle $2.5 trillion between financial institutions.

When she was chief information officer for Discover Financial Services, Diane Offereins created a network designed to put the 23-year-old company on technological par with its older and larger rivals. Now, as head of Discover's Payment Services, Offereins puts that infrastructure to work.

At first glance, it seems as though the credit crisis would hit a retailer's account base hard. But Susan Ehrlich has managed to keep Sears Holdings Corp.'s customer count steady with a few old-fashioned tricks.