Go West, Young Woman

For the seventh year in a row, US Banker and American Banker have offered up their view of the 25 most powerful women in banking. It's no surprise that Heidi Miller, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase's $9 billion Treasury and Securities Services business, held onto her spot at the top of the list.

The writers point to "two undeniable truths—that having more women executives leads to stronger financial performance, and that the financial industry has a long way to go when it comes to gender equity" as the foundation of the ranking. If that is the case, shareholders of Wells Fargo should take note. The San Francisco-based bank was the best-represented institution on the list, with three women. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, US Bancorp, and Bank of America each had two. Wells led larger rivals JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi, although US Bancorp is smaller.

Wells' winners included No. 3 Carrie Tolstedt, senior executive vice president for community banking, No. 12 Cara Heiden, co-president of Wells Fargo home mortgage, and No. 13 Avid Modjtabai, head of technology and operations. Perhaps Wells should receive extra credit for putting a woman in charge of technology and operations, a position that clearly puts her among the senior ranks of women in technology as well as banking. It probably wouldn't be too reckless to assume this part of the business is typically run by men.

The big question is whether one of these women is in line to replace CEO John Stumpf, who is set to take on the additional responsibility of chairman, in the wake of the retirement of Richard Kovacevich.