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copied!<p>There are several possible reasons and several possible explanations (some good, some bad). It differs from bank to bank and from programmer to programmer why they use the systems they use. My bank actually has a flash-based online banking system as of a year ago, which with all of the security vulnerabilities turning up in Flash has had me really edgy.</p> <p>Some things to take into consideration:</p> <ul> <li><p>Most banks are very old. They've been around since the early 1900's, and some even earlier. It's rare to find a bank who just started up 5 years ago. These banks started out with pen and paper systems and so they are slowly inching into the digital age. This is in stark contrast to businesses who got their start on the internet like Facebook.</p></li> <li><p>When you work at a bank, you want to hire the "best and brightest" programmers to keep your system efficient and secure. The problem is- the people who own banks usually don't know the different between MSWord and WordPad. For this reason, positions as programmers for banking software are usually offered to the candidate with the "most business experience". Or, in real world terms, the oldest. Face the facts- as you get older you stop keeping up wit modern trends like AJAX. I wouldn't be surprised if half of the bank's back-end was coded in Java</p></li> <li><p>Banks want to keep things simple so that "it just works". Why do you think power goes out during storms but the water in the sink always works? The simplest systems are least likely to fail. If you increase the complexity, you increase the number of things that can go wrong. Even if it's a proven system that has never failed before, it's extra details and that's extra worry.</p></li> <li><p>Although my bank really can't say anything here (since some computers don't have Flash and certain iDevices won't even allow it), many banks may say no to required javascript simply because not all browsers support it or it's possible to disable it. If Mrs. Piggsworth the 80-year-old librarian down the street wants to access her bank account from her 1992 Pentium I, she certainly won't be doing it on anything newer than Internet Explorer 3</p></li> </ul> <p>Also, I'm not sure off-hand if AJAX and SSL play nicely. I'd like to look into that.</p> <p>As far as speed/efficiency goes, you'll actually find if you started using it that AJAX is faster. You only load the necessary data rather than entire webpages and you can switch between frames without having to make HTTP requests. It can also make more a more intuitive interface when you incorporate click/drag functionality and sortable lists. The problem lies mainly with the increased complexity and the fear which that should bring to any system. The more pieces you have, the more pieces which can go wrong.</p>

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