Kristin Broughton

CEOs on the hot seat. Banks fighting to stay independent. Comfortable players ripe for disruption from Amazon and others. It is shaping up as a riveting year.

Banks need to stake out a presence on platforms that have nothing to do with banking.

It was a year to remember for women executives at SunTrust and Amex’s new CEO, and one to forget for Wells Fargo and investors in bank stocks.

Branch acquisitions, once a popular way to scale up in new markets, have started to go by the wayside in the digital age.

It’s still primarily a commercial bank, but the branding campaign — CIT’s first in a dozen years — is designed to appeal to the group driving its torrid deposit growth: retail savers.

Men on Wall Street take a cue from Vice President Mike Pence in refusing to dine one-on-one with women; Coinbase adds fertility benefits; and the CFPB has a new leader. Plus, Bank of America's Katy Knox gets promoted.

CFO John Gerspach said he's not worried about legislation in Mexico to ban retail banking fees becoming law based on recent comments by the nation's president.

The changes affected Dean Athanasia, Thong Nguyen, Katy Knox and Andy Sieg. The company also gave more responsibility to Chief Administrative Officer Andrea Smith.

Big-bank execs downplayed gloomy economic forecasts and said a commercial lending rally, niche M&A and smart tech spending will drive growth in 2019.

Robert Rubino will join the New York company in February as president of CIT Bank and head of commercial banking.