The Most Powerful Women in Banking

With 25 years of experience as a small-bank CEO, Laurie Stewart has emerged as a leading advocate for community banking in her home state and nationwide.

Having aced the challenges she faced in 2014, Diane D'Erasmo was rewarded with a new position overseeing HSBC's business with core industries in key growth markets.

When the Japanese-owned bank was undergoing an exhaustive review of its operations, senior executives gave Wendy Breuder perhaps the daunting task: identifying cost savings across six business lines spanning eight countries. She more than delivered.

For the chief executive of a bank with just $253 million of assets, Jill Castilla has had an outsized influence on the banking industry.

The statistics are dismal: Last year, just 16% of board seats at S&P 1500 companies were held by women, less than the percentage held by directors named John, Robert, James and William. But plenty of women are working to change that, including quite a few in our rankings.