The Open Source in Finance Forum (OSFF) is the premier event bringing together leaders and technologists across financial services and the open-source ecosystem. This conference is uniquely designed to enable partnerships, advance talent development, and showcase open technologies that enable the financial industry to scale, modernize, and enhance profitability.

As open source becomes integral to financial services, OSFF provides companies with a unique venue to maximize open source ROI. By strategically contributing to open projects, organizations benefit from reduced development costs, heightened security, access to top talent, and overall faster innovation. OSFF 2025 will spotlight groundbreaking advancements, deliver insights on best practices, and offer exclusive access to the leaders shaping open source in finance.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

We welcome talks on a wide range of topics relevant to open source in the financial services industry. Our talk themes this year center around our strategic initiatives. 

Please Note:

Below are potential / suggested tracks and topics that speakers may use as guidelines within the conference themes above. PRODUCT / SALES PITCHES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Please do not submit a general talk. We are very interested in talks that build around our financial services decision maker and technologist audience. Regulated industries like finance have a different set of rules that our community has to negotiate daily - so make your talk have impact for this community, not open source communities in general.

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Track Name: An Open Source AI-Powered Industry

This track focuses on developer-centric, open source technologies that enable artificial intelligence in financial services. We're seeking talks that offer practical insights, tools, and architectures for building AI-enabled systems that are scalable, secure, and suitable for highly regulated environments.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks (hint - this is what we’re looking for): See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025 

Suggested Topics to Submit

• Open source AI platforms, tools, orchestration frameworks and datasets for financial services
• Implementing AI agent infrastructure in capital markets and trading environments
• Developer tools and techniques for explainable, secure, and auditable AI systems
• Practical applications of AI to improve operational efficiency, customer service, and risk management
• Case studies on the successful implementation of AI-driven financial models using open source technologies
• Leveraging machine learning to drive innovation and reduce friction in financial workflows
• Exploring the role of quantum computing, IoT, and other emerging technologies in shaping open AI infrastructure for finance
• Governance, benchmarking, and lifecycle management for financial AI systems built on open source
• Strategies for integrating AI into legacy systems while meeting regulatory requirements
• Accelerating financial developer productivity with AI 

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Track Name: Mutualizing Risk and Compliance in the Open

This track invites talks from business leaders, risk professionals, and technology managers focused on how open source can help mutualize the responsibility of compliance, governance, and technology risk across the financial industry. Sessions should explore how open frameworks, shared tooling, and collaborative approaches can help meet regulatory obligations while accelerating innovation in areas like AI, cloud, and infrastructure.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

• Aligning open source initiatives with DORA, Basel III, and global financial regulations
• The FINOS AI Governance Framework and its implications for regulated AI deployment
• Governance and risk management strategies for AI-enabled systems in financial services
• Best practices for compliant cloud-native architectures using Common Cloud Controls
• RegTech platforms built on open standards or open source tooling
• Assessing and managing technology risk in AI, multi-cloud, and open source environments
• Strategies for balancing innovation and compliance in highly regulated markets
• Collaborating across the industry to reduce duplicative compliance efforts through open solutions
• Case studies on using open source to improve auditability, traceability, and regulatory reporting

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Track Name: Guarding the Vaults

This track explores the evolving challenges and innovative solutions for securing the open source software supply chain within financial services. Talks should focus on practical implementations of security and compliance strategies that address modern threats, regulatory pressures like the Cyber Resiliency Act (CRA), and the need for robust, community-driven defense mechanisms.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

• Securing the open source software (OSS) supply chain: challenges, strategies, and innovations
• Responding to regulatory frameworks such as the Cyber Resiliency Act (CRA) and their implications for OSS
• Open source security and supply chain risk management in financial institutions
• Tooling and methodologies for identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities in OSS components
• Implementing secure open source practices in highly regulated industries
• Enhancing cyber resilience through automation, SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials), and formal verification
• Governance, licensing, and policy best practices for OSS security at scale
• Real-world case studies: How financial firms hardened their OSS stacks
• Collaboration models that enhance the security of OSS through community and vendor engagement

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Track Name: Ushering a New Era with the Common Domain Model

This track focuses on the development, adoption, and real-world implementation of the Common Domain Model (CDM) across financial services. Talks should explore how CDM enables interoperability, simplifies regulatory compliance, and drives system integration through shared open standards.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

Standards and Interoperability in Financial Services

• Developing and implementing open standards to improve financial system interoperability
• Leveraging common data models and protocols to enhance system integration
• Collaboration among financial institutions to drive industry-wide standardization
• The role of standards in fostering innovation and simplifying compliance

Use Cases and Implementation Approaches

• CDM adoption journeys within sell-side and buy-side institutions
• Lessons learned from implementing CDM in production environments
• How CDM supports tokenization, regulatory reporting, and operational automation
• Bridging CDM with emerging technologies (e.g., AI, knowledge graphs, blockchain)

Extension and Evolution of the CDM

• Proposals for CDM extensions in specific business domains (e.g., collateral, physical risk)
• Mapping CDM to legal contracts and regulatory frameworks
• Driving open contributions to the CDM specification and tooling

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Track Name: Supercharge Your Open Source Journey

This track is designed for leaders, program managers, and engineers working to advance open source maturity within their organizations. Talks should highlight strategies for open source readiness, proven practices in compliance and contribution, and case studies demonstrating how open collaboration drives business and technical value in financial services.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

Open Source Readiness and Compliance

• Strategies for preparing financial institutions to engage in open source projects
• Open source compliance in regulated environments
• Establishing and scaling Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) in financial services
• Tools and frameworks for assessing and improving open source readiness
• Best practices for inner source adoption within large institutions

Case Studies and Strategic Value

• Case studies on successful open source implementations and business impact
• Overcoming organizational resistance to open source contribution
• How open source accelerates product development and speed to market

Community Building and Contributor Recognition

• Building and sustaining vibrant OSS communities in finance
• Recognizing and rewarding contributors to promote long-term engagement
• DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) strategies in open source communities
• Tools, metrics, and processes for healthy community and contributor management

Developer Tools, Best Practices, and Talent Development

• Essential developer tools for open source contributions in finance
• Upskilling through open source: training and resources for financial software developers
• Building internal talent pipelines through involvement in OSS projects
• Leveraging open source to attract top technical talent

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Track Name: The Open Connective Tissue of Financial Services

This track explores the technologies and standards enabling seamless integration across the financial services ecosystem. Talks should focus on how open APIs, open protocols like FDC3, open data standards, and decentralized protocols are building a more interoperable, efficient and customer-centric financial infrastructure.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

Interoperability and FDC3 Standards

• Case studies in implementing FDC3 to streamline communication between financial applications
• Lessons learned from adopting interoperability frameworks across vendor and in-house apps
• Extending FDC3 to support new workflows, UI composition, or decentralized identity
• Frontend and UX innovations enabled by standardized desktop interoperability

APIs and Integration Strategies

• Best practices for designing and governing APIs in financial services
• API-first strategies to unlock composability and cross-platform consistency
• Leveraging API gateways and architecture-as-code to manage integration at scale
• Open Source powered Open Banking and Open Finance 

Open Data and Open Data Standards

• Financial application of new and established (truly) open data standards 
• Financial open data standards and datasets fueling the AI revolution
• Integration of existing open data standards and formats in FINOS projects

Decentralized and Open Protocols

• Using decentralized technologies (e.g., blockchain, identity, messaging) to future-proof financial infrastructure
• Protocol-level innovations supporting modular, extensible systems
• Enhancing collaboration between vendors and institutions through open protocols
• Enabling new cross-firm workflows through Decentralized protocols

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Track Name: The Business Case for Open Source

This track highlights how open source drives real business outcomes across the financial services industry. Talks should focus on tangible value—whether it's accelerating innovation, reducing cost, improving compliance, or enabling collaborative solutions that meet strategic objectives.

Link to Recently Accepted Talks - See accepted talks from OSFF London 2025

Suggested Topics to Submit

Open Source as Strategic Infrastructure

• Business value derived from adopting and contributing to open source
• How open source improves speed-to-market and platform resilience
• Success stories from financial institutions modernizing core systems with OSS
• Internal transformation through open collaboration models

Regulatory Technology (RegTech) and Compliance

• Leveraging open source RegTech to simplify compliance and reduce risk
• Open source solutions for digital regulatory reporting (DRR)
• Addressing evolving regulatory challenges with collaborative tooling

Sustainability and Transparency

• Open source’s role in advancing transparency and responsible business practices
• Collaborating on data models and tooling to support sustainability reporting and climate resilience
• Community-driven initiatives for risk modeling 

Risk Management and Accountability

• Quantifying and managing open source risk in financial environments
• Demonstrating accountability and auditability through shared standards
• The impact of OSS on governance frameworks in highly regulated firms

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Other Talks: Hot Topics in Open Source Finance

• The impact of blockchain, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and NFTs on financial services.
• Cloud adoption and its influence on open source financial applications.
• Harnessing AI and automation to transform financial services.
• Innovations in identity management, credit systems, and government-led open source initiatives.
• Emerging open source solutions and standards for modernizing payments infrastructure and processing.
• FinOps - FinOps is an operational framework and cultural practice that maximizes the business value of cloud and technology, enables timely data-driven decision-making, and fosters financial accountability through collaboration among engineering, finance, and business teams.
• Confidential Computing - securing data in use and accelerating the adoption of confidential computing through open collaboration