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British Banks have been playing "fast and loose" with their IT systems for a long time now. TSB won't be the last time we see such a catastrophe. It is not th

British Banks have been playing "fast and loose" with their IT systems for a long time now. TSB won't be the last time we see such a catastrophe. It is not the first in recent memory either. "Fast and Loose" may mean rushing changes through with unrealistic timelines, outsourcing the software development or/and infrastructure management to the cheapest location possible, sacking onshore experts to save money, etc. The UK Government is fully complicit, as their support for RBS (owned by the Government themselves) during their ruthless cost-cutting showed. Banks are of systemic importance. People suffer if they can't make payments on time or can't access money that's needed for something essential. But the systemic importance is not reflected in the legislation: we have a situation where Banks outsource their IT to Indian service companies and do their upmost to move the "heavy lifting" of software development to the cheapest location they can find, while the social networks and search engines are recruiting the top talent.

jackweirdy 8y ago
Indeed. Banks are technology companies. British high street banks either don't understand or refuse to believe that they are technology companies.
- gaius 8y ago
  Like the Civil Service, the senior ranks are selected by where their parents sent them to school, and how well they learned to conjugate Latin verbs while they were there. Technical skill is not only viewed with contempt it is actually a bar to promotion. Investment banking is actually a lot saner - Thatcher’s reforms in the 80s went a long way towards destroying the Old Boys Network in that industry niche.
collyw 8y ago
I worked for one of the biggest names in the business in ~ 2007 and was fairly shocked at how poor quality the IT systems were (and i wasn't particularly experienced then). Probably the worst job I have had. Crap work (might as well have been working in a factory for the creativity it and genuine problem solving that it involved) aggressive style management seemed to be what got promoted. And high turnover - I don't think anyone in my team lasted much over a year. The thing is they had the money to throw at the problem. Just keep on hiring young devs at a bit above market rates. Th name would look good on your CV.
rectang 8y ago
> Banks are of systemic importance. Banks also have lots of money to buy political influence. Underregulating an industry with systemic importance invites disaster when component failure becomes cascading failure. But sane regulations, difficult to achieve for any industry, are especially challenging for banking, and then even more difficult to maintain.

jackweirdy 8y ago

Indeed. Banks are technology companies. British high street banks either don't understand or refuse to believe that they are technology companies.

gaius 8y ago
Like the Civil Service, the senior ranks are selected by where their parents sent them to school, and how well they learned to conjugate Latin verbs while they were there. Technical skill is not only viewed with contempt it is actually a bar to promotion. Investment banking is actually a lot saner - Thatcher’s reforms in the 80s went a long way towards destroying the Old Boys Network in that industry niche.

collyw 8y ago

I worked for one of the biggest names in the business in ~ 2007 and was fairly shocked at how poor quality the IT systems were (and i wasn't particularly experienced then). Probably the worst job I have had. Crap work (might as well have been working in a factory for the creativity it and genuine problem solving that it involved) aggressive style management seemed to be what got promoted. And high turnover - I don't think anyone in my team lasted much over a year. The thing is they had the money to throw at the problem. Just keep on hiring young devs at a bit above market rates. Th name would look good on your CV.

rectang 8y ago

> Banks are of systemic importance. Banks also have lots of money to buy political influence. Underregulating an industry with systemic importance invites disaster when component failure becomes cascading failure. But sane regulations, difficult to achieve for any industry, are especially challenging for banking, and then even more difficult to maintain.