At a Banking Gala, Chatter Is About Citi\'s New C.E.O.

Michael L. Corbat had been invited to spend Tuesday evening at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan for an awards dinner celebrating women in banking.

“He would have been here,” said Deborah McWhinney, Citigroup's chief operating officer of global enterprise payments who invited Mr. Corbat as her guest at the 10th-annual Most Powerful Women in Banking gala.

To the surprise of many in the industry, he was suddenly making other headlines. That morning, he stepped into a new job as chief executive of Citigroup.

Mr. Corbat's sudden ascension caught even Citigroup's employees off guard. But Ms. McWhinney, one of the evening's honorees, said she wasn't particularly stunned.

“Things like this happen,” said Ms. McWhinney, who expressed confidence in Mr. Corbat's ability to lead the bank.

Ms. McWhinney brought her daughter to the gala instead. She said that Mr. Corbat had been a guest of hers at the event last year, when she had to leave early for a meeting with a prospective client.

“I felt it was perfectly reasonable for him not to be here tonight,” she quipped, “because I walked out on him last year.”

The talk at Tuesday evening's event focused less on the leadership change atop Citigroup than on the state of women in the financial industry. In a ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria, female financial leaders chosen by American Banker Magazine mingled with colleagues and enjoyed a three-course dinner as speakers lauded their accomplishments.

Firms large and small were represented, with some bankers traveling from as far as California to attend the event hosted by American Banker and SourceMedia. The evening's speeches included ideas for promoting more women to senior roles in finance, like a proposal to institute quotas on corporate boards.

Still, the news that Vikram S. Pandit had stepped down from leading Citigroup didn't go unnoticed.

“My jaw literally dropped when I read it thi s morning,” said Kelly Mathieson, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase who was among the honorees.

Employees of Citigroup sat at three tables in the ballroom, but few were willing to discuss the executive transition on the record.

The honorees included some well-known Wall Street names, like Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Morgan Stanley, and Sallie L. Krawcheck, a former executive of Bank of America and Citigroup. Julie L. Williams, who recently left her post as chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was honored with a lifetime achievement award.

A keynote speech was given by Irene Dorner, the chief executive of HSBC in the United States, who was named the most powerful woman in banking. Sheryl WuDunn, a senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities and a former correspondent for The New York Times, delivered the other keynote speech.

The rankings included three lists - women in banking, women in finance and “women to watch” - that were chosen based on considerations like innovation and influence. Some of the honorees had been recognized in past years, but others were surprised to be noticed.

“I only have like 65 people reporting to me,” said Bita Ardalan, an honoree and executive vice president at Union Bank in California. “But we generate a lot of revenue.”