I haven’t met many chief digital officers of banks. I doubt you have, either.

Despite the claims from American Banker‘s Penny Crosman yesterday, who wrote that the bank “chief digital officer” is on the rise, I still see digital bankers occupying something of an alternative universe in the banking world.

Crosman cited some obvious examples (presumably to promote American Banker‘s Digital Banker of the Year) of digital bankers, such as at Capital One Financial Corp., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, USAA Corp., and BBVA. She pointed out that 4% of the 488 known “chief digital officers” in the world in 2013 were in the financial services industry.

Well, if you do the math, that means there are around 20 such chief digital officers. In the world. At the end of last quarter, there were 6,730 FDIC-insured banks in the US alone.

And even among the examples cited, there are shortcomings. Take USAA, which is no doubt one of the most digitally advanced banks in the nation. Yes, it is true that USAA hired Christopher Cox away from Regions Financial to be its head of digital-experience delivery in January, as Crosman indicated, but USAA’s 11-member Executive Council does not even include the financial services company’s chief information officer, let alone Cox. Take a look at the average bank’s org chart and while the chief information officer might be among the decision-making team, the chief technology officer is not — let alone the “chief digital officer.”