It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
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Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#2That being said I wouldn't say Goldman is your typical bank. Other banks are much slower at embracing automation and software development is more often than not considered as a non strategic commodity which budgets and headcount fluctuates up and down based on how much is available for discretionary spending. And the statements from its senior management are also too often aspirational and disconnected from the reality of the organisation.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#3Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#4As witnessed by Bank of America's aggressive pursuit of blockchain technology & patents:
"[Bank of America] has applied for or received at least 43 patents for blockchain, the ledger technology used for verifying and recording transactions that’s at the heart of virtual currencies. It is the largest number among major banks and technology companies"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/bofa-tops...
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#5That being said I wouldn't say Goldman is your typical bank. Other banks are much slower at embracing automation and software development is more often than not considered as a non strategic commodity which budgets and headcount fluctuates up and down based on how much is available for discretionary spending. And the statements from its senior management are also too often aspirational and disconnected from the reali…
That's interesting to hear! I'm going through "Flash Boys" right now, and it (to me at least) paints GS in a pretty negative light wrt their engineering culture.
Granted the book mostly focuses on HFT firms, so I could easily see that GS is way better than most large banks but a bit lacking behind, say, Citadel.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#6As witnessed by Bank of America's aggressive pursuit of blockchain technology & patents: "[Bank of America] has applied for or received at least 43 patents for blockchain, the ledger technology used for verifying and recording transactions that’s at the heart of virtual currencies. It is the largest number among major banks and technology companies" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/bofa-tops...
I feel like some of the reasons for this are political rather than technical.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#7That being said I wouldn't say Goldman is your typical bank. Other banks are much slower at embracing automation and software development is more often than not considered as a non strategic commodity which budgets and headcount fluctuates up and down based on how much is available for discretionary spending. And the statements from its senior management are also too often aspirational and disconnected from the reali…
As someone who works in the regtech / fintech industry I totally agree. Large portions of even the biggest banks are severely underserved technologically. There is a lot of wide open space here for technology that improves efficiency and accuracy related to compliance and general operating activities.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#8It seems like banks are realizing that they need to become tech companies faster than tech companies become banks.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#9I work for a large healthcare system, and the "we're not a tech company" line is often heard. At many levels, I agree—we're in the business of delivering healthy outcomes to our communities, so we need to make sure that efforts across the enterprise support that—but it is often applied in ways that stifle us from delivering what we feel would be the most impactful and cost-effective solutions.
I like to respond that Netflix isn't a tech company, either—they're in the business of delivering entertainment. Their position and reputation allows them to build a stronger engineering culture, but their technology still is subservient to their non-tech business goals. While "software is eating the world" has been quoted to the point of being a cliché, the organizations that recognize software as a competitive differentiator—rather than merely a cost center—definitely have an edge against their tech-averse competitors.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#10it is extremely easy to tell a bank from a tech company: tell if they hash their damn passwords. i'm not even talking salt here, just hashing