[smoothgrammer]

It is a mixed bag.

In finance technology is seen as a cost center, not a profit center. They want the minimum needed to ship. Early on this results in a lot of tech debt. Later on, fixing the system is too hard and thus they need to hire super smart people to figure out the mess they are in for any code change.

Enforcement actions are INCREDIBLY rare. The penalties are shockingly low. Thus the cost of failure to comply is low, and the businesses are not prioritizing compliance.

[mrchicity]

At a company like Tower, technology is their edge and definitely a competitive advantage. Having a system that is fast, reliable and scales is key to running a profitable automated trading operation. I worked for a similar trading company and technology was definitely not a cost center.

If enforcement actions are rare, it's probably because these firms are playing clean for the most part, contrary to popular belief. If you trade 5-10% of the market, regulators are going to audit you every year. They are looking for even the smallest issues to give a fine, even minor things like not having the right Head Trader's name on your supervisory forms after someone quits.