Open Source in Finance Forum London 2026

Open source software underpins nearly every modern engineering platform in financial services, yet only a small number of these technologies are truly essential to day‑to‑day delivery. As organisations scale, the challenge shifts from adoption to sustainability: keeping critical open source tools secure, current, well‑understood, and fit for purpose over time.

This talk explores how large financial institutions can move beyond traditional ownership models and build internal communities of practice around core open source technologies. Drawing on real‑world experience, it examines why centralised ownership does not scale, how community‑driven stewardship reduces operational risk, and how aligned internal communities improve consistency and engineering velocity.

Attendees will learn how to identify essential open source technologies, what healthy internal communities look like in practice, and how to sustain them long term. The session also covers common anti‑patterns, governance considerations in regulated environments, and the role of an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) in enabling — rather than owning — these communities.