The FINOS Open Source in Finance Forum (OSFF) is a premier gathering designed specifically for leading decision-makers in the financial sector, including C-suite and managing directors at sell-side banks and buy-side firms. This conference presents a unique opportunity for these decision-makers to engage directly with the evolving landscape of financial technology through the lens of open source innovation. It is an ideal platform for discussing and shaping the future of finance, focusing on collaborative strategies to enhance code efficiency and delivery speed.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

Open Source Readiness

• The Open Source Readiness Initiative supports financial services organizations in their open source maturity journey so they can realize the benefits of open source code and collaboration. 
• Open Source Readiness is leading activities that enable safe and compliant open source consumption and contribution in financial services firms. 
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing best practices and case studies on how sell-side banks and buy-side firms move the needle to support and build consumption and contribution policies that help financial institutions become leaders in open source, reduce costs, and attract better talent.

Open Regulation Innovation

• The Open RegTech Initiative explores and promotes opportunities for open collaboration between financial institutions, technology firms, service providers, and regulators. It aims to use open source standards and software to change how financial regulation is implemented and supervised. 
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing the pressing challenges and priorities related to regulation interpretation and compliance, as well as examples of best practices and successful approaches to addressing the ever-growing needs for data and transparency in financial services under regulatory guidelines (US / UK as a starting point - but not exclusive to these regions). Current regulatory-related initiatives based on FINOS projects and frameworks and areas of opportunities in open innovation are talks that will have a high value.

Artificial Intelligence in FSI (AI) - In January 2024, the FINOS board approved AI as a strategic initiative to speak to the growing opportunity and need for open collaboration in AI in the financial services space. We’re looking for talks that address the following:

• AI Readiness for financial service companies (policy, frameworks, best practices for safe and compliant adoption of AI by Financial Services firms) 
• Financial Services LLM use cases
• AI Best Practices in regards to the regulatory nature of financial services
• Financial AI open source toolchain

Interoperability/FDC3

• Interoperability and FDC3 aim to provide an open standard for interoperability on the financial desktop. This includes standardized verbs to invoke actions between applications (called "intents"), a standardized data format, an OpenAPI app directory standard, and standardized API operations.
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing relevant FDC3 use cases and workflows, case studies of successful implementations, demos, and best practices to help extend the work already done in FDC3, and to uncover best use in and across financial desktop applications using the FDC3 standard.

Common Cloud Controls / Cloud in FSI

• FINOS Common Cloud Controls (FINOS CCC) is the codename for an open standard project, originally proposed by Citi, open sourced at the end of 2023 into FINOS, to describe consistent controls for compliant public cloud deployments in the financial services sector. This standard is a collaborative project which aims to develop a unified set of cybersecurity, resiliency, and compliance controls for common services across the major cloud service providers (CSPs).
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing cloud best practices, standards, and case studies, specifically as they relate to financial services and the relevant regulatory guidelines (US / UK as a starting point - but not exclusive to these regions).

Common Domain Model (CDM) (Part of Regtech)

• The Common Domain Model (CDM) is a standardized, machine-readable, and machine-executable data and process model for how financial products are traded and managed across the transaction lifecycle.
• The CDM is based on cross-industry collaboration between ICMA, ISDA, and ISLA and facilitates trade processing of repo, securities lending, bond, and derivatives transactions. The CDM is available in FINOS under the FINOS Community Specification License 1.0.
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing advantages of standard, digitized contracts, applicability of the CDM for managing front-to-back business events and workflows, and best practices for cost-effective regulation compliance. 

Open Source Software (OSS) Supply Chain Security

• Open source software is pervasive in financial services data centers, consumer devices, and applications. Securing open source software in finance, or any other sector requires fostering collaboration, establishing best practices, and developing innovative solutions. Financial services companies run into the same issues as other tech companies, with the added layer of financial regulation that holds them more accountable than other large tech companies.
• Identifying critical upstream and downstream dependencies for FINOS Projects and FINOS Members (specifically buy-side firms and sell-side banks) has accelerated in the past three years as banks have not only consumed more open source, but have now really started to contribute back to it.
• Talks submitted here would benefit from discussing innovative and collaborative approaches for the financial industry to manage supply chain risk while modernizing their software stack and adopting the best of open source solutions.

Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)

• Talks covering cloud native projects and cloud native end-user stories ideal for the enterprise audience, particularly focused to those in the finance industry. Attendees will leave with enhanced knowledge on how to leverage cloud native projects and technologies to support various workloads to drive forward development within enterprises.

FinOps Foundation

• FinOps is an operational framework and cultural practice which maximizes the business value of cloud, enables timely data-driven decision making, and creates financial accountability through collaboration between engineering, finance, and business teams.
• Sessions are prioritized for end-user practitioners and NO vendor talks will be accepted regardless of Foundation membership status.
• We welcome speakers to share their stories and experiences using real-world examples and data. Please be sure to have the proper permissions or attributions to use data examples in your talks. Many speakers choose to anonymize data or redact sensitive things in order to still use data to support their topics.
• You can also use findings from the State of FinOps annual survey to support your talk. We also encourage speakers to reference and cite past FinOps Foundation materials to help us grow our body of knowledge.

Open MainFrame

• Financial institutions have relied on mainframes for more than six decades. By many estimates, they process up to 90% of the credit card transactions in use today. They’re fast and reliable, despite what some sensationalized headlines might lead you to believe. In this track, we’re looking for open source on the mainframe including Linux on Z, those directly associated under the Open Mainframe Project and those that complement it. As modern tooling becomes more and more desirable to the mainframe workforce, our objectives include: encouraging developers of all ages and backgrounds and organizations to embrace the use of open source tools on the mainframe; demonstrating modern mainframe tooling; and establishing a thriving community of users and contributors. This track aims to cater to experience levels from the novice to the expert.

OS-Climate

• We welcome proposals regarding software, data, standards, and collaborations for climate- and sustainability-aligned finance, investing, business, and regulation. Open source collaboration on pre-competitive layers of technology and data that can integrate commercial components and services is crucial for helping financial institutions and corporations worldwide -- including in the Global South -- to address the growing wave of regulatory requirements across hundreds of regional, national, and subnational jurisdictions, as well as voluntary commitments such as those under the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero. Innovations in AI, computer science, data science, business models, and other disciplines all tie into developing solutions for addressing climate risk and opportunity.