What programming language is most suitable for fintech?

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What programming language is most suitable for fintech?

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9 Answers

Matthew Harris, Fintech professional | Python enthusiast

Updated Feb 28

Python is an ideal programming language for the financial industry. Widespread across the investment banking and hedge fund industries, banks are using Python to solve quantitative problems for pricing, trade management, and risk management platforms. Python also seems to have answers to most challenges raised by the financial industry when looking at analytics, regulation, compliance, and data, which are made easy by the abundance of supporting libraries.

I don’t want to deter those who are using other server-side languages for their fintechs. Most will allow you to accomplish similar goals and, in fact, many companies use several back-end languages to build out their product.

However, while that’s the case, there are some technologies that will help you to achieve your goals in a far quicker and more intuitive manner. I’m sure that many will have their reasons for why their favorite back-end technology is ideal for fintech, and I’ve seen a couple suggested in previous answers, but in a recent article I wrote I went in depth regarding Why Python Should Be the Technology Choice for Your Fintech. Have a read and see if you agree. If you don’t, it should at the very least make for a more interesting debate on this forum.

For the sake of brevity I will include an interesting finding from the article below and share some conclusions from the larger write-up.

Financial Giants Using Python

After reviewing the labor pool and recruitment trends, it’s important to know that the programming language that you ultimately choose has a good track record. Additionally, it shouldn’t put you at a disadvantage when tackling issues typical to the financial industry, such as speed, scalability, and quantitative problem-solving.

Though Python is by no means a new language, its growing popularity across the investment banking and hedge fund industries is a relatively new development. Much of the ubiquity of Python among financial services giants can be attributed to Kirat Singh. If you haven’t heard of Singh, read about how this investment banking guru quit to start his own firm.

His reason for introducing Python? In a 2014 interview given to eFinancialCareers, Singh (a former MD at Bank of America Merrill Lynch) said, “It is a good scripting language and easily integrated into both the front and back ends, which was one of the reasons we chose it in the first place.”

Python is a core language for J.P. Morgan’s Athena program and Bank of America’s Quartz program. Singh went on to say: “Everyone at JPMorgan now needs to know Python and there are around 5,000 developers using it at Bank of America. There are close to 10 million lines of Python code in Quartz and we got close to 3,000 commits a day.”

While J.P. Morgan and Bank of America should be added to the list of those incumbents that fintechs are attempting to overthrow, this does add some serious weight behind why the language is applicable to financial services in the first place.

Below is a summary of some of the key benefits that make Python suitable for fintechs

·         Python’s simplicity leads to lower error rates and less bug-hunting.

·         Python may not be the fastest performing language, but it’s a top choice for optimal time to market.

·         The straightforward syntax of Python will facilitate collaborationbetween developers, technical experts and the C-suite.

·         Finally, Python’s wealth of open source libraries provides ready-to-go solutions for many common problems in fintech.

A little bit of background about me. In my previous life, I worked for a promising Polish fintech. My exploits culminated in a “Best of Show” win at Finovate Europe 2016 (see the video FinovateEurope 2016 - Valuto if interested).

To go more in depth you can find the full write-up here - Why Python Should Be the Technology Choice for Your Fintech.

If you would like to know which Fintech companies use Python you can checkout the following sources:

Top 17 Fintech Companies that Include Python in Their Tech Stack

or

8 Fintech Companies with Python in Their Tech Stack - Insurtech Edition

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