Out of retirement...experts in 1950s programming
SPECIALISTS in a computer language first developed in the 1950s are seeing their salaries soar as banks, grappling with new regulations, are desperate for experts who can work with their ageing computer systems.
IT technicians who are specialists in Cobol – Common Business Oriented Language – have seen salaries rise 11 per cent over the past year, according to figures from website ITjobswatch.
The programming language is used across a range of businesses, but banks have a particular need for Cobol technicians because they are aiming to restructure their retail operations and the associated IT systems, which rely on Cobol.
RBS is in the process of separating more than 300 branches to form Williams & Glyn. Meanwhile, all the banks will by 2019 have to separate their retail businesses from any investment banking they do, as part of the Government’s ringfencing rules. This will involve extensive work on IT systems.
Patrick Feast, a finance and IT specialist at recruiter Harris Global, said: ‘All the new generation of technicians have no interest in investing their time learning Cobol. People who know it are retiring. There are Cobol skills still out there but you struggle to find someone under 30.’
Figures from ITjobswatch show that during the three months to the middle of January, job adverts citing Cobol as a requirement were offering salaries averaging £50,000, compared with £45,000 during the same period a year ago.
Banks’ computer systems are proving an increasing headache. Last November RBS had to pay £56million in fines to regulators over its 2012 IT outage, which left millions of customers without access to their accounts.