Banks treat development as just like call centers... they know they have to pay for warm bodies, any warm body will do.
As long as you had a CS degree, no matter what uni, no matter the grades, your experience, and if you were breathing during the interview they would hire you.
He joined a team where managers ruled supreme, and while many of the developers were good, they were probably worse than devs on the other teams. Managers were given a budget, and ultimately they didn't care if software was delivered without any testing if the financial risk wasn't that great. This led to developers following orders and rushing to complete stuff with frightening bugs, deployed systems that didn't match source control, etc.
It's a different process, but it seemed to be the same outcome. They hired top-tier graduates, but taught them nothing, and put them under enough constraints that it didn't matter who they hired. They were always going to deliver absolute shit.
Other banks are paying for their tech sins with technical debt -- paying Cobol devs ludicrious money because there is no one else.
Can't see traditional banks with this attitude of placing bodies in seats surviving long term.