The Most Powerful Women in Banking: No. 6, Wendy Stewart, Bank of America

Wendy Stewart, president of global commercial banking for Bank of America , attributes the record increase in new client relationships in her division last year to relationship building and being well positioned during the 2023 banking crisis.

"It's a relationship-based business. You don't come in and provide one solution and then you're out the door," said Stewart, who leads 1,500 employees in the commercial banking division. "Those deep relationships are crucial for us to continue to grow with our clients and add new ones."

Stewart said that BofA's reputation in the market allowed it to withstand the temporary turmoil caused by the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank — and to even benefit from it. "When there are market disruptions — it's not a matter of if they happen, it's when — we are well positioned to continue to grow," Stewart added.

"What we heard from our clients is: I don't have the time to do a lot of diligence around the strength and stability of all these different banks; we just need to know that the banking partners that we choose to work with are going to be there with us for the long haul," she said. "So, yeah, we were the beneficiary of some of that disruption."

Bank of America's commercial banking division added 77% more new clients in 2023 than in 2022, a record for the bank, along with a 9% increase in revenue, 10% increase in net income and 4% increase in commercial loans, to $195 billion.

This year, Stewart said, her commercial banking customers are focused mainly on challenges from the economy, expected interest rate cuts and geopolitical issues, which include the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, tensions in Asia, and the 77 or so elections globally this year, as well as the U.S. presidential race.

"Our clients, they do business globally, so elections that are happening in other parts of the world are equally as important for them to focus on as they think about how they're going to drive their business forward. If they're thinking about growing, expanding, what does the implication of a political election, say in France or Mexico, have on their ability to continue to invest and grow?" Stewart explained. "It's something that we need to be aware of and be up to speed and understand the impact that it could have."

Stewart took over as head of commercial banking three years ago as the country was coming out of the pandemic and several of the people on the commercial bank's leadership team were getting ready to retire. She saw the pending leadership turnover as an opportunity: her chance to build her own team, taking the long view into consideration.

Stewart thought about how the commercial banking business could grow — where the business would be in 20 or 30 years and the type of leadership the bank would need at that point, she said.

She was looking for potential leaders who were ambitious — not for themselves but for a larger cause — and who wanted to be part of a growing business, who liked to work with teams and who wanted to impact the communities where they live and work, she said. She also wanted to bring in "great leaders" from a variety of professional backgrounds — from commercial banking and other lines of banking, and from within and outside Bank of America.

"There's a lot of value in having different perspectives and different experiences," Stewart said. "That has definitely made for a richer leadership team that is bringing those different perspectives so that we can make better decisions."

Building the right culture at the bank is crucial, she said. "For me, culture starts with having a very strong team that is really focused on being a great place to work for colleagues and winning for clients."

"I'm competitive and I want to win," said Stewart, though she said she has toned down the ultra-competitive streak of her younger self in recent years outside of work — even on pickleball courts. "But I know who the competition is; our competition is external. We don't compete with each other internally; we collaborate."

After stepping away from banking in the early 2000s, when she started a nonprofit organization for reading readiness, she rejoined BofA in 2007 with a better understanding of the work she could do as a banker to improve her community, she said.

"Banking is a great industry, and especially if you want to make a difference. You can impact your clients, whether they're individuals or companies or institutional investors. You definitely can impact your team in the communities where you live and work," she said. "Over time, I realized that companies can make as much of an impact to address societal issues as not-for-profits can. We just do it in different ways."