The Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), the financial services umbrella of the Linux Foundation, announced the addition of new members to its ecosystem: BlackRock, Microsoft, and Publicis Sapient have joined as Gold Members, while GitLab has elevated their commitment from Silver to Gold Membership. Additionally, Syntasso, Tidelift and TradeHeader have joined at the Silver Membership level.
Gabriele Columbro, executive director of FINOS, said in a statement. “With household names like BlackRock and Microsoft, we now have critical mass in advancing our strategic initiatives in key constituencies like the buy-side and cloud service providers, while the commitments of GitLab, Publicis Sapient, Syntasso, Tidelift and Tradeheader show once again the value open collaboration in financial services delivers to all actors in the ecosystem.”
BlackRock, an asset management firm and provider of the Aladdin platform, joins FINOS with a focus on advancing the Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium (FDC3) initiative.
“BlackRock is thrilled to join FINOS, bringing more representation from the buy side to the organization. We are eager to continue leveraging FDC3 integrations and interoperability and partnering more with the FINOS community,” said Mike Bowen, technical fellow and head of BlackRock’s Open Source Program Office, in a statement. “FINOS aligns with BlackRock’s open source strategy and will help drive our advocacy for open-source solutions in financial services including our own technology platform, Aladdin.”
“The FDC3 standard integration is pivotal as it lays the foundation for future extensibility of the Aladdin platform and strategic integration partnerships facilitated by the FDC3-compliant message bus and adapters. This collaboration will enhance trader workflows through data consistency and contextual awareness across platforms, inspiring additional use cases in the future,” added Sitija Sakar, managing director and technical fellow and head of Aladdin UX Engineering, in a statement.
Microsoft, aligns closely with FINOS’ strategic initiatives, particularly in cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft’s involvement underscores the importance of cloud and AI technologies in transforming financial services, offering scalable, secure, and innovative solutions to meet the industry’s evolving needs.
“Microsoft is excited to share our new membership in FINOS and support its mission of fostering collaboration and innovation in the financial services sector. As a company that is committed to open source and cloud solutions, we see great alignment with FinOS’s initiatives, such as promoting ethical and responsible use of AI, establishing common cloud controls, and enabling interoperability through FDC3,” said Allison Nachtigal, VP in Microsoft Industry Cloud, in a statement.