I worked in banking IT for 4 years, and yes, the systems are awfully messy there. However, I think it isn't fair to solely blame the banks for it. If there wer

I worked in banking IT for 4 years, and yes, the systems are awfully messy there. However, I think it isn't fair to solely blame the banks for it. If there weren't mountains of regulations to comply with all over the place, the systems would be a lot simpler, clearer, and more transparent. The first place to start, to make banking IT more transparent, would be simplifying and aligning national and international regulations. Make one set of regulations for the whole world, and make it clear and simple. Of course, that might not be a realistic aim. First of all, it would make the international banking system even more vulnerable to a single loophole in laws. Secondly, it probably wouldn't be possible to do this in a way that follows new developments in financial products closely enough. Thirdly, the simplification itself would result not in all the current systems being decommissioned (that might happen in 10 or 20 years at the earliest), but in all the current systems becoming legacy but still active systems while a whole new spate of systems is built. Maybe the current compromise is the one that works best, despite its flaws.