[pc86]

> Many still run on AS/400 mainframes in the backends.

Are you implying that using old technology makes it somehow incompetent? I don't know about you, but I absolutely do not want my financial institutions to be running their risk analysis software in Node just because someone wants to try it out.

[SEJeff]

Nope. I'm implying that they don't use the latest and greatest or "best tech". I'm agreeing with your opinion and having worked with the tech teams of banks am confirming it as truth via firsthand experience.

[spiralpolitik]

Like in any industry there are good teams and bad teams. Working in finance verses working in say social does not automatically make you a bad developer.

Culturally there are two things make finance different. One is that it is a hideously conservative and risk adverse. AS/400's are used because they are well understood, very reliable, and supported by someone other than an attention deficit teenager in a bedroom.

Second is that mainstream finance doesn't see itself as a technology industry. There are areas like quant investment and high frequency trading that are, but most finance companies still look at technology as a line item on the budget rather than the foundation that their business is based on. This is changing slowly (see one) but will mostly likely require an external disruption to push change through any quicker.

[SEJeff]

Entirely agreed on all points. I work in hft and only am in this industry due to the fantastic bleeding edge tech.

[bostonpete]

So which part of simonh's comment were you saying couldn't be further from the truth? I didn't see anything in his comment about the latest and greatest or "best tech".