Now under the Linux Foundation, the Fintech Open Source Foundation wants to accelerate software development across financial services
- FINOS runs 11 programs driven by more than 30 financial services organizations and technology members.
- Aligning with Linux, the group will have more resources and reach to encourage open source software development.
The Linux Foundation and the Fintech Open Source Foundation today announced that FINOS will become a Linux Foundation organization.
Joining forces: To enable this effort, the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit enabling and evangelizing innovation through open collaboration, has agreed to acquire the FINOS operating assets. FINOS is a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate adoption of open source software, standards and best practices in financial services.
- FINOS has 11 programs driven by more than 30 financial services and technology members, 300+ community contributors and over 75 open source repositories.
- The Linux Foundation will position FINOS as its umbrella project to advance development of open source and standards within the financial services industry.
- The FINOS team, led by Executive Director Gabriele Columbro, will join the Linux Foundation. Columbro will continue in his role.
“Open source technology is essential to the future of the financial services industry,” said Alejandra Villagra, FINOS chairperson, Citigroup.
Open source encourages standards setting and pooling of resources to address audacious problems in finance. “Over the last few years, FINOS successfully created a community of buy-side, sell-side, fintech and tech companies who work together on a wide range of open source projects and standards, “ said Dov Katz, FINOS vice chairperson and distinguished engineer at Morgan Stanley.
"Joining the Linux Foundation will extend our pool of partners, talented developers and engineers dedicated to solving similar problems, and will help the community innovate even faster,” he said.
Open source in finance rising: The financial services industry was one of the earliest industries to embrace Linux.
- Since then, fintech firms have been leveraging open source to develop new technologies, like cloud computing, decentralized networks and blockchain, and machine learning and artificial intelligence.
- FINOS has worked to bring industry stakeholders together around open source contribution.
- Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Capital One are FINOS members.
- See FINOS' open source projects on Github
“In less than two years, FINOS has become the go-to foundation for open source collaboration in financial services," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation.
"With this sector’s focus on technology-driven solutions, we feel the time is right to bring our two communities together to enable the next stage of innovation for our projects. We look forward to working with Gab, the FINOS team and its members as we together chart the future of global financial services collaboration.”
Driving open source: The main driver behind the move to open source in finance is the many changes the sector is experiencing.
- Starting with the fintech wave, decentralized technologies illustrate the potential for disruption. Open source also helps the industry access better talent.
- Reduced margins impacts the way this industry did software — it now wants to be like Silicon Valley.
“FINOS has achieved tremendous growth across our project portfolio thanks to our 35 members and wider community,” said Gabriele Columbro, executive director of FINOS.
Financial services organizations have been rapid adopters of new technology, including large amounts of open source.
It is increasingly important for firms to look at enterprise open source and its ability to foster innovation while maintaining stability," said Chris Wright, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Red Hat. “As active members of the Linux Foundation we see the immense potential this collaboration has to benefit the financial services industry as they adapt to an evolving technology landscape"