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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

#41

Post by tvanantwerp »

lisper wrote: post #16
claytoncorreia wrote: post #8

It seems like banks are realizing that they need to become tech companies faster than tech companies become banks.

No, it's that it is much easier for a bank to become a tech company than for a tech company to become a bank. The barriers to entry for becoming a tech company are merely technological. They are not trivial to surmount, but they are surmountable. By way of contrast, the barriers to entry to becoming a bank are regulatory, and nearly impossible to surmount, at least in the U.S. When was the last time you heard of a ne…

I doubt a startup could become a bank. But if Google wanted to start a banking subsidiary? They could probably throw whatever money it takes at the problem and get it done.

The real question is, would they care to do it?

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#42

Post by debt »

oblio wrote: post #20
organsnyder wrote: post #9

I 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…

I like to ask people what's the biggest advertising company in the world. You'd be surprised how many people don't know :)

I say the same about largest media company in the world.

It's shocking that people don't know it's Facebook.

And in their case not just in the world, but the largest media company in history by a very wide margin. People don't see any connection between William Randolph Hearst and Mark Zuckerberg; Facebook really has the best PR team.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#44

Post by tryitnow »

This sounds like marketing baloney. I would bet most of that "engineering" headcount is actually just analytical headcount. not a bad thing, but it's not what we used to call engineering.

This is part of an ongoing trend to describe everything as some form of "engineering."

Honestly, if I'm going to Goldman for M&A - I want a human relationship. That relationship may be buttressed by research and analysis using "big data" and "machine learning" - but that's not engineering, that's just good research using the latest useful tools.

I'm only addressing the actual investment banking component of GS. Sure, the consumer banking stuff requires technology and "engineering" but there's absolutely nothing new about this, it's just that consumer banking has lagged horribly behind in consumer-friendly technology.

Not much to see here.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#46

Post by joejerryronnie »

DrBazza wrote: post #24

Really? Sounds like the author has never worked in either, and just reads news sites. Having worked in several of both 'MegaBank LLC' and 'A Small Tech Company', they're utterly different beasts. Just because both mention blockchain doesn't mean they're the same. Culturally, they're worlds apart. Banks offer a career path up and away from technology so you get unmotivated developers joining who are just looking for t…

While I do agree with your sentiment, switch "Banks" with "VCs" and "end-of-year bonus" with "IPO" and many people would consider your last paragraph an accurate description of the tech startup scene.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#47

Post by ahussain »

lisper wrote: post #16
claytoncorreia wrote: post #8

It seems like banks are realizing that they need to become tech companies faster than tech companies become banks.

No, it's that it is much easier for a bank to become a tech company than for a tech company to become a bank. The barriers to entry for becoming a tech company are merely technological. They are not trivial to surmount, but they are surmountable. By way of contrast, the barriers to entry to becoming a bank are regulatory, and nearly impossible to surmount, at least in the U.S. When was the last time you heard of a ne…

https://monzo.com/ - not in the US, but in the UK some start ups have started overcoming the regulatory hurdles.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#48

Post by southphillyman »

123212321 wrote: post #31
xaybey wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I make significantly more at GS than I did at google. The difference is that the majority of my compensation comes from the yearly bonus - a quirk in finance.

As a regular engineer? Or is there a math heavy component? My understanding is that I could get about 200k base at goldman and maybe a 20% bonus, this is for working in a high in demand field. Google/FB/Other job I can get 300k+ while working less hours, paid for lunch, better treatment, more respect.

That's a realistic compensation package for a normal Sr engineer role at a big bank ime. No, it's not Goog/FB pay but a lot of the jobs are available in LCOL areas like Delaware and the Triangle fwiw.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#49

Post by whatok »

123212321 wrote: post #40
nissimk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Many smaller financial firms derive their advantage from technology. There are many areas of finance aside from high frequency trading and they all benefit from significant force multiplication from technology. Even in the lowly area of operations automation there are firms that achieve significant scale with a small number of personnel through technological advantage. Granted this is sometimes achieved with a co…

Source is I work in this field. There are positions with big data and data management that pay well. But the ones paying 350k+ are way harder to get than working at a top tech firm. Theres a quant trading firm called engineers gate that has a bunch of ivy league programmers, the top of the top. They havent made a nickel off their technology. They have a had a huge outflow of talent to Google and FB. People do get pai…

If "data scientists" working at Google are considered tech roles then finance quants should be as well, right? I agree that there's a distinction between data engineers and quants but to me they're all tech roles essentially.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#50

Post by freehunter »

debt wrote: post #42
oblio wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to ask people what's the biggest advertising company in the world. You'd be surprised how many people don't know :)

I say the same about largest media company in the world. It's shocking that people don't know it's Facebook. And in their case not just in the world, but the largest media company in history by a very wide margin. People don't see any connection between William Randolph Hearst and Mark Zuckerberg; Facebook really has the best PR team.

Well the difference is that Facebook is an aggregator and doesn't actually publish or write any of their own content. They're a media company, sure, but they're not directly comparable to newspapers or cable news outlets.
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