Python has already replaced Excel in banking #Python #Finance
Sarah Butcher on efinancialcareers writes that if you wanted to prove your mettle as an entry-level banker or trader it used to be the case that you had to know all about financial modelling in Excel. Not any more. These days it’s all about Python, especially on the trading floor.
“Python already replaced Excel,” said Matthew Hampson, deputy chief digital officer at Nomura, speaking at last Friday’s Quant Conference in London. “You can already walk across the trading floor and see people writing Python code…it will become much more common in the next three to four years.”
As Python becomes more prolific, Hampson said banks are able to innovate more quickly. The industry’s reputation for fustiness is undeserved, Hampson added: “The concept of rapid innovation has always existed in financial services, but it was done using the Excel spreadsheet. We now have a new vehicle for doing that – Python.”