The Latest from Women in Banking

The hiring of Rania Llewellyn comes a little more than a month after Jane Fraser was named Citigroup's chief executive, which will make her the first female head of a big Wall Street bank.

To help stop a cycle of systemic racism, bankers need to focus on advancing Black employees to leadership positions and create long-term relationships with Black-owned businesses.

The combined company would be the nation's 19th-largest bank with roughly $110 billion of assets.

Even more so than activist investors, customers and a new generation of employees are driving banks to back environmental, social and governance reforms, executives said during a Women in Banking roundtable hosted by American Banker.

Banks need to be inclusive at the highest levels, and men in the C-suite need to play an active role in that transformation, says Operation HOPE’s John Hope Bryant.

Jane Fraser, who in February will become the first female CEO of a Wall Street bank, said during a Women in Banking event hosted by American Banker that she will be “the first of many, many more” to come.

Longtime finance entrepreneur Jackie Reses, who led Square Capital for the last five years, is leaving the company at the end of the month. Square has not yet named a successor.

Twenty of this year’s honorees were among our 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking in 2019, while four — Citizens Bank of Edmond’s Jill Castilla, City National Bank’s Kelly Coffey and JPMorgan Chase’s Lori Beer and Jennifer Piepszak — are former Most Powerful Women to Watch making their debuts here.

The biggest name, of course, is Jane Fraser, the president of Citigroup who in February will replace Michael Corbat as CEO. Fraser, who has been a mainstay on our Most Powerful Women in Banking list for years, will be the first woman in U.S. history to lead a large, global bank.

Promoted to executive director of the retail bank in April, McKinney oversees an operation that accounts for roughly 40% of Comerica’s workforce and 435 branches in five states.