The Financial System Runs on 40 Year Old Code

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When we think about modern finance, we picture sleek apps, real time payments, and cloud infrastructure humming in the background. What we rarely picture is the decades old code quietly processing trillions of dollars every day. This video pulls back the curtain on the surprising reality that much of global banking still runs on COBOL, a programming language built for precision and reliability long before most modern developers were born. It explores why banks continue to trust COBOL for mission critical systems, how an aging workforce has created what some call the Greybeard Crisis, and whether artificial intelligence can realistically step in to maintain or modernize the backbone of the financial system. Beneath the surface of innovation lies a fragile stability, and understanding that tension is essential to understanding the hidden risks inside global finance today.

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