[Alex3917]

Actually that's probably not accurate now that I think about it. Python is mostly used by quants and people figuring out what trades to make, as well as for some of the internal business tools. Whereas the people building the actual exchanges are probably using Java or C++.

[dodders]

"Finance" is such a broad term with respect to IT - you'll find anything if you look hard enough. The following is based on my experience only - I'm sure there will be lots on here with different experiences:

* I've seen more C++/Java/C# than anything else, with a large legacy base of COBOL/RPG (yes, GMI, we're looking at you...).

* Industrial-grade quant libs (for risk, P&L, models that need regulatory approval) tend to be in C++, with the infrastructure to run them increasingly in Java.

* Lots of VBA on the desktop. Every department runs on Excel...

* Python is making inroads (see Quartz at BofA, Athena at JPM), but I suspect that it's still vastly outnumbered (by whatever measure) by C++/Java.

Some firms (and departments in bigger shops) embrace new technology agressively - at my firm I know of large Scala projects, python, big data (mainly Mongo/Hadoop), R and some Haskell.

That said, on my first job in the UK for a large insurance firm, we employed a team that wrote custom CICS machine code for Z-series mainframes. Beat that with yer fancy functional languages...

So no, I wouldn't say that python is dominant.

[osullivj]

I hear BofA are back pedalling on Quartz. Kirat has left, and there's some new senior IT mgmt who don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. Just gossip, would be interested in any confirmation/refutation...

[rmellow]

Im an economist who loves to program (especially in Python, but I'm not married to it), and I detest Excel.

Where do I fit it?

[elcct]

marriage?

[jwhitlark]

I keep seeing Clojure come up in relation to banking, and occasionally in relation to hedge funds.

[aldanor]

Can confirm, am a quant.