Fork the Bank: How Open Source Is Rewriting the Rules of Finance is an on-demand webinar about open source in financial technology, not a claim that open-source software is replacing banks. Recorded on September 9, 2025, the Linux Foundation Education and FINOS event introduces two different ideas: FDC3, which helps financial desktop applications interoperate, and the Common Domain Model (CDM), which provides a shared way to represent financial transactions and business events.
What the webinar covers
The event is aimed at developers, DevOps engineers, IT leaders, and people considering a move into financial technology. Its agenda connects open-source projects and standards with practical skills, participation, and work in regulated environments. Those are topics for discussion—not a promise that contributing to an open-source project, or adopting a standard, automatically meets regulatory obligations.
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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 guide to FDC3 or CDM. See the event description and speaker biographies.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat FDC3 means for financial desktop apps
FDC3 is an open standard for interoperability on the financial desktop. The official specification defines a shared interaction layer: applications can use a Desktop Agent API, invoke actions through intents, exchange context data, and use an app directory. The specification page identifies version 2.2 as current; it was adopted April 1, 2025, and released April 8, 2025. Read the FDC3 2.2 specification.
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In practical terms, a Desktop Agent can act as a launcher and message router between compatible applications. Context data carries commonly understood identifiers and information in JSON, while intents express an action an application can handle. This can reduce the need for every pair of applications to invent its own connection, but FDC3 does not provide an entire desktop environment or dictate every app’s internal data model.
An illustrative workflow
- A user selects a financial instrument in one application.
- That application publishes relevant context—such as an identifier—using a recognized FDC3 context type.
- A second application receives the context and maps it to its own internal representation.
- The user or first application invokes an intent, and the receiving application handles the requested action if it supports it.
This is an illustrative explanation of the standard’s building blocks, not a claim about a particular deployed system. FDC3 context is a lowest-common-denominator exchange format: each app may translate it into its own representation. The specification explicitly does not define a symbology solution or a model of financial objects. The specification describes FDC3’s components and scope.
What CDM means for transactions and business events
The Common Domain Model addresses a different problem. FINOS describes CDM as a mutualized, free, open-source blueprint for representing financial transactions, performance, and related business events. Its purpose is to give participants a more consistent model for describing financial activity; the overview presents interoperability and straight-through processing as aims, not measured results. Read FINOS’s CDM overview.
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Put simply, FDC3 concerns how applications communicate in a desktop workflow; CDM concerns how financial activity is represented. A standard message between two desktop apps and a shared model for a transaction are related interoperability challenges, but they are not interchangeable solutions.
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FDC3 and CDM compared
| Question | FDC3 | CDM |
|---|---|---|
| Problem addressed | Interoperability between financial desktop applications. | Consistent representation of financial transactions and business events. |
| Main artifact | Desktop Agent API, intents, context data, and an app directory. | A shared domain model or blueprint. |
| Where it operates | Financial desktop workflows. | Representation and processing of financial activity. |
| Version information established here | Version 2.2, marked current by the official specification page; adopted April 1 and released April 8, 2025. | The cited FINOS overview does not state a current version or publication date. |
What open source does—and does not—change
These standards show how open-source collaboration can provide shared interfaces and models for financial technology. That can give organizations and developers a common starting point for connecting systems or describing activity. The webinar’s title is rhetorical: the event description does not establish that open source has displaced banks, quantify industry-wide adoption, or demonstrate specific savings or productivity gains.
Nor does an open standard by itself settle security, regulatory, vendor, or implementation questions. Organizations still need to evaluate how a particular implementation is governed and operated. The event frames project participation in regulated finance as a subject to explore; it is not a compliance guarantee.
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The webinar page says registrants receive a recording link and a coupon for finance-related courses and certifications. Check the event page for current access and terms. The page does not establish that a particular course or coupon remains available indefinitely.
For readers interested in the engineering context, Moffat’s Risk-First Software Development is an adjacent reading option identified in his event biography. It should not be treated as an FDC3 or CDM implementation manual. FINOS also advertised a September 2025 masterclass on CDM and digital regulatory reporting using Rune and the Rosetta platform; that past announcement does not establish current training availability. See FINOS newsletter announcements.
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