Over the last 15 years I have worked for 5 banks as an FTE and Contractor and have to say the following.
1) Working in tech for banks is pretty much the same everywhere. After the 2008 crisis everything including bonuses went down the drain for tech/support people. It doesn't matter if you are MS, JP or GS
2) If your job function is a cost center and not generating income/deal with customers you are in danger to be outsourced. If you are aged 40+ they will let you go first.
3) Allot of banks are moving their operation centers to midwest cities or even Argentina, India and Philippines. They really don't care if you are 2x more productive if they can get somebody at 1/2 or less of your salary.
4) IT management is stupid enough thinking that they can outsource allot of jobs to automation or Agile. They are the main reason of these overcomplicated internal processes that they have created and they want to clean up so that they can start again. They will believe any hype from Amazon AWS or the like
5) Mostly Tech management is operating on Nepotism and connections. There is really no skill. They will throw you under the bus in order to clean up the mess they have created by hiring people they didn't really need in order to create seniority in their roles over the years.
6) Hiring standards have increased ENORMOUSLY over the last 3-4 years and will only hire if they think you have a resume that ticks all their overhyped checkboxes that MDs have pushed down to management. They are now selling allot of Contracting gigs because they don't know what they will do next. Also they is a plenty influx from H1B visas from tech workers from india who are willing to work for allot less.
7) Allot of current managers are former H1B Visa employees who will always prefer to hire from their own kin rather than a 40yo American with a family with 2 kids
Most important
8) If you are not there just for the Paycheck and you enjoy what you do apply to one of the Big Consulting firms like Deloitte, E&Y. Accenture etc. they have a need for people who can generate income for them. These firms can find plenty of inexperienced college grads to fill the associate levels but they can't really get allot of highly experienced Tech workers. Sometimes you might have to take a small paycut but 3-4 years down the road you will be BETTER and HAPPIER than your previous employeer. Consulting has doubled over the last 8 years.
It is all about the Risk. You either risk with a new career or risk staying there and praying you will not be cut next.
You are a little bit safer is your job directly generates income for the company and it is not a support role.
Good luck to all....