Banking Software? AKA a Tesla dashboard on a horse's stagecoach

I spent the week from 19 to 23 of January 2026, in the World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos Switzerland, where the world discusses the future of the global economy. Yet, when a day before start, I opened my Deutsche Bank mobile banking app to check my available cash, I was greeted by … nothing. 

A literal blank screen, as you can see in the actual screenshot.

The irony? They just pushed a software update a few days ago. 

And this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered major bugs like this, and it’s not limited to Deutsche Bank.

It’s a classic case of "Legacy Glue." It seems like most big banks look basically like 1970s mainframes wearing a 2026 tuxedo. When they "update" the front end, the ancient COBOL code underneath starts sweating.

Banking software seems a joke. The best metaphor? It’s like putting a Tesla dashboard on a stagecoach. It looks high-tech until you realize there’s still a horse pulling the weight, and one wrong "update" makes the wheels fall off.

We need systems built for the digital age, not digital masks for the Stone Age. And definitely Banking FinTech needs a huge refactoring.

What has been your experience with banking apps?