Pianorak - thanks!
The banking connection is to do with the complexity of a trade. A "vanilla" trade is a very basic trade where a client might buy some options. The client will phone the trader, and the trader will read the price off a computer screen. As opposed to an "exotic" trade where they might do a deal involving options in a number of different stocks with some complex interaction between them. For this type of deal, the complexities need to be analyzed and a price calculated based on how much risk is involved. At least I think that's how it works - to an IT person like me it just means I have more numbers to look after for an exotic trade than I do for a vanilla one!
I used to hate the word "vanilla" when I first came across it. Now I find myself using it without even thinking about it.
FFF
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