Memory safety, performance, async ecosystem: lessons learned after 18 months of Rust in a fintech.
In payment infrastructure, a memory error is not a bug: it's a security incident. Rust eliminates entire categories of vulnerabilities by construction, with no garbage collector and no compromise on performance.
After 18 months, our conclusion is clear: fewer incidents in production, predictable latency on the SEPA Instant engine, and an async ecosystem (Tokio, gRPC) mature enough for high-throughput transactions.
The cost? A real learning curve and more demanding recruitment. But for a system that handles people's money 24/7, it's an investment we would make again without hesitation.