Like mother, like daughter might be an appropriate description of Meghan Federico, except that she laughs and says she’s not a tiny size 3 like her mother, Kim Duenes. What might work better: What mother likes, daughter likes.

Federico credits her mother with modeling a banking career that she, too, has found totally satisfying. “When I was little,” she says, “I played banker.” She occasionally accompanied her mother to work, and at 18, she was hired by Valencia National Bank.

“I had not intended to stay in banking,” she says, “but I kept going back to it.” At Valencia, she organized the Central Operations Department. Later she moved to Scripps Bank and worked with high net worth clients. In 2001, she was one of Regents Bank’s co-founders, and now, at 31, she is assistant vice president of business banking at Regents Bank in La Jolla.

She works mainly with small business owners and organizations that help them, including Family Business Forum and Chairman’s Roundtable. She likes to play golf and has found it a positive activity for networking, an important and enjoyable part of her job.

Although still excited about her job, she has found another love as well: motherhood. She and her husband of nine years, Dan, an engineer and her high school sweetheart, have their first baby, Maya. “She’s the love of my life now,” says Federico.

“I used to ski, dive, travel, until she was born,” she adds. “Our passion was to travel, and it still is. We are taking her everywhere.”