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Fork the Bank: How Open Source Is Rewriting the Rules of Finance is the title of an on-demand webinar presented by Linux Foundation Education and FINOS, recorded September 9, 2025. It introduces open source in financial technology through two standards: FDC3, for communication between financial desktop applications, and the Common Domain Model (CDM), for representing financial transactions and related business events. The title is rhetorical: the webinar describes technology and collaboration in finance, not banks being replaced.
What the webinar is about
The event is aimed at developers, DevOps engineers, IT leaders, and people considering work in financial technology. Its stated themes include how open-source projects participate in regulated environments, how people can contribute, and which skills and certifications may be relevant. Those are subjects for discussion and learning—not evidence that participating in an open-source project automatically meets regulatory obligations.
The listed speakers are Rob Moffat, Senior Technical Architect at FINOS; Helene Astier, Head of Technology, MI Enterprise Technology & Sustainability at S&P Global; and Tim Serewicz, Linux Foundation Education’s Vice President of Education. Moffat is also identified as the author of Risk-First Software Development, a book on software development in regulated finance rather than a direct FDC3 or CDM manual. The event page describes an introduction; it does not establish industry-wide adoption or quantify open source’s effect on finance.
FDC3 and CDM solve different problems
FDC3 and CDM are complementary, not competing standards. FDC3 is concerned with applications communicating in financial desktop workflows. CDM is concerned with representing financial activity in a shared way. A desktop message can carry context about an instrument; a domain model can define how a transaction or business event is represented. One does not replace the other.
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| Comparison | FDC3 | CDM |
|---|---|---|
| Problem addressed | Interoperability between applications on a financial desktop. | A common representation of financial transactions and related business events. |
| Primary artifact | Desktop Agent API, intents, context data, and an app directory. | A domain model or blueprint for financial activity. |
| Scope | Desktop application workflows and communication. | Representation and processing of financial activity. |
| Version evidence | FDC3 2.2 is marked current by the official specification; adopted April 1, 2025, and released April 8, 2025. | The FINOS overview available here does not state a current version or publication date. |
How FDC3 connects financial desktop apps
The official FDC3 2.2 specification says its aim is to provide an open standard for interoperability on the financial desktop. In practice, it defines a baseline interface so desktop applications can identify one another, invoke actions through intents, and pass commonly recognized context.
What the pieces do
- Desktop Agent API: the baseline interface through which an application can interact with the desktop interoperability environment.
- Desktop Agent: acts as a launcher and message router, connecting applications and helping deliver requests or context.
- Intents: describe actions an application can ask another application to perform.
- Context data: carries shared information, often as JSON, so another app can interpret it. An application may map that common payload into its own internal representation.
- App directory: provides a way to find applications and their capabilities within the environment.
For example, imagine a user selects a financial instrument in one application and asks another to open related information. The first app could send recognized instrument context and invoke an intent; the receiving app could use the context to carry out the requested action. This is an illustrative workflow, not a claim about a particular deployment.
Rank #2
FDC3 standardizes an interaction layer, not an entire desktop product. Its context format is a lowest-common-denominator payload, not a universal model of financial objects or a solution for every kind of identifier and symbology. Applications and desktop environments still need to implement the relevant behavior and map shared data to their own needs. The specification also describes experimental agent bridging; it should not be confused with a guarantee that every desktop agent or application can interoperate in every configuration.
What CDM contributes
FINOS describes CDM as a mutualized, free, open-source blueprint for representing financial transactions, performance, and business events. The intention is to give participants a shared way to describe financial activity, with interoperability and straight-through processing among its aims. That is a statement of purpose, not a measured finding that adoption has already produced particular savings or processing improvements.
Rank #3
The distinction from FDC3 matters in implementation. FDC3 can help applications exchange context and actions in a desktop workflow; CDM addresses how financial activity is represented. A shared desktop message format does not by itself create a common transaction model, and a transaction model does not by itself connect two desktop applications.
FINOS’s overview is available as a PDF. That overview does not supply a current CDM version or publication date, so claims about its latest release or present adoption should not be inferred from it.
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What open source changes—and what it does not
Open-source standards and projects can give financial organizations and software suppliers a shared basis for collaboration rather than requiring every participant to invent an incompatible interface or representation. FDC3 and CDM illustrate two different places where that common ground can matter: desktop interaction and financial-domain representation.
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But an open standard is not a turnkey system, a regulatory approval, or proof of industry-wide transformation. Organizations still need to assess their own security, governance, integration, vendor, and compliance requirements. The webinar’s focus on contribution in regulated settings is a prompt to consider those responsibilities, not a blanket assurance about them. No named, attributable statistic in the cited event and standards material establishes a market-wide adoption rate, productivity gain, or cost saving.
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Learning more
The webinar announcement says registrants receive access to the recording and a coupon for finance-related courses and certifications. That describes the event offer; it does not establish current course availability or coupon terms. A FINOS newsletter also advertised a September 2025 CDM masterclass involving Rune and the Rosetta platform. It is evidence of a past learning opportunity, not confirmation that the class is currently offered.
For developers, the most direct starting point is the FDC3 2.2 specification and the FINOS CDM overview. They clarify the separate problems each standard addresses before a learner chooses a course or explores a project. Moffat’s Risk-First Software Development may be useful adjacent reading for software engineering in regulated finance, but it is not presented as an FDC3 or CDM guide.
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