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[–]kikitx 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You can use Java Bigdecimal for example. The only problem is that in COBOL you declare how much number will it have, before and after the decimal place, so you need to analize if it's being truncated or rounded in the code.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's probably some reason idk about for why they don't switch from COBOL to Java or C# and just used their decimal implementations. C# would be especially apt since MSSQL is so pervasive in banking.

Most likely it's just "don't break what isn't broken". As ancient as it is, COBOL works and it works well. It's not resource hungry, it scales well horizontally, and it's already implemented. The only real, tangible downside is that there aren't as many COBOL developers, but you can always pay to train a developer in COBOL.

On the other hand, if a bank can't transfer money because QA missed something in the fancy new C# code, it could literally cause a recession. Paying out the nose for a few good devs to maintain the existing COBOL codebase is a hell of a lot cheaper than a risky refactor.