C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon 2026
The winners have been announced
Explore the winning agentic AI prototypes and watch demos from all 36 finalists.
The gap in AI adoption is growing
There is a growing gap in agentic AI adoption. Financial institutions and FinTechs are moving faster than regulators. This adoption gap creates significant vulnerabilities, widening 'trust fractures.
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (2026): The 2026 Global AI in Financial Services Report: Adoption, impact and risks. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
What?
The C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon brought together regulators, AI researchers, engineers, academics, financial institutions, FinTechs, infrastructure providers, and technology partners to create agentic AI solutions for regulators.
The hackathon enabled participants to work with rich problem spaces, synthetic datasets, regulatory context, and expert mentors to create concept notes (in the preliminary round) and agentic AI prototypes (in the final round) that can be deployed to enhance and improve policymaking, regulation, authorisation/licensing, supervisory and enforcement processes, as well as facilitate inter-agency and cross-regulatory coordination and collaboration.
Why?
Agentic AI is increasingly disrupting financial systems and the wider digital economy. AI agents are being used to automate decisions, execute complex workflows, transfer value, monitor markets, and interact with consumers. All at machine speed.
As agentic AI transforms industries, public authorities including financial and non-financial regulators (e.g. data, communications, competition regulators) need to adopt agentic AI capabilities themselves to keep pace, to maintain trust and to ensure effective policymaking, regulation, supervision and governance.
This hackathon was designed to enable multi-disciplinary teams to leverage agentic AI to build prototypes in order to support real regulatory and policy workflows all over the world.
Who?
We invited participants to form collaborative teams and also welcomed applications from existing regulatory authorities, innovative companies and organisations, as well as researchers, experts, entrepreneurs and students from around the world.
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THE “AUTHORITIES”
Participating teams from central banks, financial regulators, data protection authorities, ministries of finance, financial intelligence units, payments regulators, competition authorities and communications regulators etc.
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THE “BUILDERS”
Machine learning engineers, LLM application developers, agentic AI architects, data experts, PhD researchers, infrastructure providers, cloud and model providers, technical builders, etc.
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THE “EXPERTS”
Experts in financial services, FinTechs, digital assets, digital payments, blockchain & smart contracts, anti-scam and financial crime prevention, financial advice, cybersecurity, academics, entrepreneurs as well as students.
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THE “OBSERVERS”
We welcomed public authorities across all regulatory domains to join as Observers for Demo Day & Live Voting on 15 September 2026. We will also engage with you throughout the hackathon process and beyond.
How?
Teams selected one or multiple problem spaces to work on:
Teams had to select at least one of the following priority tracks for their agentic prototypes:
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AGENTIC FINANCIAL & HIGH-STAKES AI ADVICE
Mitigate risks to consumers using autonomous LLMs & agentic advisors for high-stakes decisions within financial services and the wider digital economy, including model biases, hallucinations, lack of explainability and compliance breaches.
SUPPORTED BY MONEYBOX
Visit the problem space page -
AI-DRIVEN FRAUD & SCAMS
Combat the industrial-scale use of AI for criminal purposes to create deepfakes, synthetic identities, and hyper-personalised frauds and scams in order to protect consumers, financial systems and society.
Visit the problem space page -
AGENTIC PAYMENTS & COMMERCE & THEIR OVERSIGHT
Create oversight for high-velocity, machine-to-machine agentic payments and commerce, to detect and prevent automated illicit transactions, develop ‘Know Your Agent’ protocols, and agentic solutions for solving accountability and redress issues.
SUPPORTED BY ANT INTERNATIONAL
Visit the problem space page -
KNOW YOUR AGENT (KY-A), DIGITAL VERIFICATION & DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Develop agentic solutions, protocols or infrastructure to authenticate and verify AI agents and detect autonomous exploitation of digital public infrastructure layers (e.g. digital ID & data sharing).
Visit the problem space page -
DECENTRALISED MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE, SMART CONTRACTS & AI AGENTS
Wallet-connected AI agents now can transact directly with self-executing smart contracts - routing orders, managing collateral and rebalancing liquidity across DeFi and tokenised markets. What agentic solutions can help public authorities to understand and monitor agentic on-chain activities and mitigate potential systemic vulnerabilities?
SUPPORTED BY THE ETHEREUM FOUNDATION
Visit the problem space page -
MARKET MANIPULATION, AGENTIC HERDING & STABILITY
Create agentic solutions that will monitor and mitigate against potential market manipulation and herding by autonomous AI agents.
Visit the problem space page
Teams were asked to explore how their solution to the problem space applied across one or several stages of the policy making process:
Preliminary Round
For the Preliminary Round, Teams were asked to submit a Concept Note for each of the problem spaces selected. (1,500 words and needed to include schematics.)
Final Round
Selected teams were given access NayaOne with synthetic data sets and tooling to build working prototypes over the course of a week as part of a virtual hackathon from 1st September to 8th September 2026.
Each team produced a standardised submission. Open-source was encouraged to enable wider adoption but not a requirement, especially for established firms and services providers (e.g. regtech firms, suptech vendors or technology firms). Teams were encouraged to outline how their proposed solution(s) could be scaled and transferred across regulatory domains and jurisdictions.
Every prototype had to include and demonstrate approaches to the following guardrails:
Human-in-the-loop
Auditability & Traceability
Safety & governance controls
Cyber risk
Judging & Showcase
Participants took part in a virtual Demo Day + Live Voting with 260+ Voting Regulator Observers.
The top solutions were selected to present at finals for judging by C:\>DIR Cambridge Regulator Fellows, which included 15+ senior global regulatory leaders who assessed the solutions developed.
The winners were announced as part of the C:\>DIR Summit which was held in Cambridge on 18th September 2026.
When?
8 July to 9 August 2026: Preliminary Round
9 August 2026 (23:59 BST): Final date for submission of Concept Notes
1 September to 8 September 2026: Final Round
15 September 2026: Virtual Demo & Live Voting by Regulators Globally
17 September 2026: Judging Day with C:\>DIR Fellows
18 September 2026: Winner Announcement during the C:\>DIR Summit
Why Participate?
Participants had the opportunity to:
• Collaborate with regulators and innovators worldwide
• Develop solutions to address real public-sector challenges
• Showcase their work on a platform with 200+ global policymakers and leaders
• Contribute to building the future of trusted AI governance
• Receive £300 in cloud compute if selected for the Final Round
• Access a prize pool of $100k available for multiple prizes
• Win 2 tickets for each winning team to the Singapore FinTech Festival
Prizes
Prize pool of up to
$100,000
Total prize pool
The C:>DIR Global Agentic Regulator Hackathon offered a total prize pool of USD 100,000.
Selection and distribution
USD 75,000 was awarded to the six highest-ranked teams as follows: first place USD 35,000; second place USD 15,000; third place USD 10,000; and USD 5,000 to each of the teams placed fourth to sixth. Where a winning participant was affiliated with a regulator or other public authority, the corresponding prize was paid to that institution, to be applied to projects related to the hackathon submission.
Vouch.finance prize
A further USD 25,000 was reserved for the highest-ranked team that built its solution using issuance.vouch.finance.
Singapore Fintech Festival
In addition to the cash prizes, each of the six winning teams were invited to send two representatives to the Singapore Fintech Festival, with complimentary event tickets provided (subject to availability; travel and accommodation excluded). Winning teams were invited to present their use cases and share the hackathon's findings at a dedicated festival session.
The Preliminary Round of the C:\>DIR Global 'Agentic Regulator' Hackathon attracted 336 high-quality team submissions from over 65 countries – spanning regulators, policymakers, start-ups, developers, tech vendors, infrastructure providers, professional services firms, academics and students.
Following a rigorous review process, 36 teams – six per problem space – were selected for the final prototype build round. Notably, 19 of the 36 finalist teams were from, or affiliated with, regulatory authorities, including central banks, financial regulators and other public bodies.
Given the strength of the final field, C:\>DIR hosted two global 'Virtual Demo + Live Voting' sessions, open exclusively to policymakers and regulators from financial and non-financial public authorities.
Voting Regulator Observers saw live presentations and demos of agentic AI prototypes built for public authorities by the hackathon finalists – and were able to cast their vote to help determine the winner of each problem space. Live voting scores were combined with expert panel scores to produce the final rankings.
'Virtual Demo + Live Voting' Session 1 — 15 September 2026, 12:00–15:00 BST
Showcased prototypes from three problem spaces:
Agentic Financial & High-Stakes AI Advice
Agentic Payments, Commerce & their Oversight
AI-Driven Fraud & Scams
'Virtual Demo + Live Voting' Session 2 — 16 September 2026, 12:00–15:00 BST
Showcased prototypes from three problem spaces:
Decentralised Market Infrastructure, Smart Contracts & AI Agents
Market Manipulation, Agentic Herding & Stability
Know Your Agent (KY-A), Digital Verification & Digital Public Infrastructure
An initiative of
Regulatory partners
Supporters
Ecosystem
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Academic partners
Technology partners
Contact
For additional questions, please contact: hackathon@cdir.global
Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ applies together with our Terms and Conditions. If there is any conflict between the two, the Terms and Conditions will apply.
General Information
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The Agentic Regulator Global Virtual Hackathon brings individuals in a multi-disciplinary environment to collaboratively build agentic AI prototypes that strengthen trust, resilience, and oversight in the future financial system and digital economy.
The hackathon focuses on practical public-sector applications of AI across areas such as supervision, fraud detection, payments oversight, cyber resilience, digital public infrastructure, and market abuse.
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The hackathon is organised by Fii as part of the C:\>DIR global policy convening initiative, in collaboration with regulatory authorities, academic institutions, technology partners, and industry stakeholders.
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The hackathon is virtual initiative, enabling participation across jurisdictions and time zones. Selected showcase events, presentations, or conference activities may include optional in-person participation.
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We welcome participation from:
Regulators
Public authorities
Central Banks
AI researchers and academics,
Engineers and developers,
RegTechs and SupTechs,
Financial institutions,
Infrastructure providers,
Technology companies.
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No. The hackathon is intentionally multidisciplinary. Regulators, policy specialists, and domain experts are critical participants and may contribute through:
Defining problem spaces
Mapping workflow
Governance design
Legal and policy guidance
Subject matter expertise.
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You reserve the right to withdraw or cancel your application at any time but must notify the hackathon organisers as soon as you make the decision to withdraw or cancel.
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Yes. Teams can consist of 1 or more individuals.
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Yes. Institutions, regulators, universities, startups, and companies are encouraged to register teams or nominate participants.
Where an individual participates, they do so in a personal capacity and represent that their participation and any submissions do not breach any obligations owed to their employer or any third party.
Where a team participates on behalf of an organisation, that organisation is responsible for compliance with these Terms, including any indemnities and licences granted under them.
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There is no fee to participate.
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You are encouraged to register as a Participant.
As a participant, you will be required to submit a Concept Note, including a schematic, to take part in the Hackathon.
If you are a public authority and are not selected for the Build portion of the Hackathon, you will be invited to register as an Observer.
Only public authorities can register as an Observer.
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Participant LinkedIn profiles will be subject to review and participants who are selected for the Build Hackathon will be screened against sanctions lists to ensure compliance with UK and international sanctions law.
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Organisations that are official partners of the Hackathon may submit a Concept Note and participate in the Hackathon, provided that conflict of interests are disclosed and individuals from partner associations have not received access to non-public information or been materially involved in the design, delivery or judging of the Hackathon.
Hackathon - preliminary round
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No, you will not automatically qualify for the second part of the hackathon if you register for the preliminary round.
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Rather than prescribing a single narrow solution pathway, the hackathon provides participants with broad regulatory problem spaces and encourages diverse technical approaches and experimentation.
Teams are expected to develop creative, practical, and responsible solutions within defined governance and safety boundaries.
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You must submit a Concept Note addressing one of the Problem Spaces to be considered for the Build portion of the Hackathon.
Only shortlisted applicants will proceed to the Build Hackathon.
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Due to the anticipated volume of submissions, individual feedback will not be provided.
Applicants should not expect detailed review comments or coaching during the concept note stage.
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All concept notes will be reviewed through a structured assessment process.
Submissions will undergo both AI-assisted screening and expert review before final shortlisting decisions are made, subject to organisers' discretion. -
The organisers currently anticipate shortlisting approximately 30 teams for the Final Round.
The final number will vary depending on the quality and diversity of submissions received and subject to organisers' discretion.
Hackathon - final round
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Shortlisted participants will take part in a structured onboarding process, including:
platform access setup;
team confirmation and formation;
technical orientation;
governance and security briefings;
background checks where required;
and introductions to mentors and challenge leads.
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Teams will build agentic AI prototypes addressing one of the problem spaces listed on the website.
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Yes. Participants may receive access to synthetic datasets and supporting technical resources relevant to selected challenge areas.
No real or personally identifiable customer data should be used.
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Yes. All prototypes must include consideration of the below (amongst others):
Human-in-the-loop
Auditability & Traceability
Safety & governance controls
Cyber risk
Projects must also comply with all applicable governance, security, and synthetic data requirements.
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Teams will be required to submit:
a 5-minute video demonstration showing final prototype;
supporting documentation & code;
presentation materials;
and evidence of governance, explainability, and safety controls.
Further submission requirements will be shared during onboarding.
Technology & infrastructure
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Teams may use a wide range of tools, models, frameworks, and infrastructure providers, subject to hackathon rules and security requirements.
Additional technical guidance may be provided during onboarding.
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Selected infrastructure, technical tooling, APIs, or platform support may be made available through hackathon sponsors and technology partners.
Details will be shared with registered participants.
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No but participants are encouraged to use open-source to support public-good reuse and cross-jurisdiction collaboration.
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Yes. By participating in the hackathon, participants grant Fii and relevant partners a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to review, evaluate, publish, demonstrate, and showcase submitted projects and related materials for purposes of running the competition, judging, and promoting the hackathon and its outcomes, including event reports, post-event summaries, and conference or academic presentations relating to the Hackathon outcomes, for a period of 24 months following the end of the Hackathon.
This licence does not permit use in paid advertising, commercial endorsement, or co-branding without the participant’s prior consent.
This may include team names, participant names, organisation names, project summaries, screenshots, demo recordings, and presentation materials, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
Intellectual property
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Participants retain all IP rights in existing solutions and any outputs developed through participation in the Sprint. as well as any new work, code, ideas, or outputs created during the hackathon ("Foreground IP"), subject to any rights of their employer or other third parties. Further information available in the Terms & Conditions.
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Yes. Participants may incorporate pre-existing tools, frameworks, models, or open-source components into their submissions, provided they:
have the right to use them,
comply with applicable licensing requirements,
and properly attribute third-party materials where necessary.
Participants are responsible for ensuring that their submissions do not knowingly infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties.
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No confidential supervisory information, classified materials, personal data, or proprietary datasets should be submitted unless explicitly authorised to do so by the owner of the dataset.
Demo day & live voting
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Shortlisted teams will present their solutions to regulators, judges, and invited stakeholders.
Presentations may include:
live demonstrations;
prototype walkthroughs;
question-and-answer sessions;
and discussions regarding implementation potential.
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Yes. Selected demonstrations will be showcased to public authorities registering as Observers as part of a live voting process, subject to organisers' discretion.
Further details will be provided closer to the event.
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A short selection of solutions will be selected to present to an eminent panel of judges who will select the final 3 winning solutions.
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Yes. A prize pool of up to USD $100,000 is available in cash prizes. Cash prizes will be available for individuals and will convert to equivalent funding for national authorities. Additional prizes may be available for teams that use https://vouch.finance/ to develop their solutions. The top 6 winning teams will also receive 2 complimentary tickets to the Singapore Fintech Festival. (subject to availability). Additional sponsor prizes may be available under separate terms.
Prizes are awarded gross and without deduction. Recipients are solely responsible for any tax obligations arising from the receipt of a prize, including any income tax, withholding tax, or reporting requirements in their country of residence. Participants are advised to seek independent tax advice in relation to their own circumstances. The Organisers do not provide tax guidance and accept no liability for any tax due by participants.
Judging & showcase
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Projects will be assessed across several criteria, which can include the below subject to the organisers' discretion:
Public-sector utility
How directly the prototype supports supervisory, policy, enforcement, or collaboration workflows.Feasibility and operational realism
Whether the solution can work within existing regulatory IT, legal, and governance environments.Governance quality and explainability
Whether the agent provides traceability, audit logs, rationale trails, and meaningful human oversight.Trust, impact, and innovation
Whether the prototype advances market integrity, fairness, consumer protection, resilience, and regulatory effectiveness
Additional factors that can be assessed subject to organisers’ discretion include speed to market, scalability and governance quality.
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Projects will be evaluated by a distinguished panel of regulators and policymakers, including governors and commissioners.
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Subject to organisers’ discretion, selected finalists will:
be invited to present virtually at the C:\>DIR Annual Conference
participate in showcase events
enter incubation or accelerated tooling pathways
or contribute to future collaborative public-interest infrastructure initiatives
Registration & logistics
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Participants can register through the official registration portal: https://www.cdir.global/cdir-hackathon
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All applicants will be notified of whether they are selected or not.
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Following registration, applications will be reviewed and participants selected to the Final Round will receive:
onboarding materials
access to technology platforms
invitations to preparatory sessions or workshops
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Where possible, the organising team will try to accommodate changes during the onboarding process subject to organisers’ discretion but will not be able to accommodate when the Hackathon begins.
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Yes. Technical and mentor workshops will be made available to participants on-line.
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You can make a complaint via email at hackathon@cdir.global or send a letter to Fii C/O Birketts Llp, 22 Station Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, CB1 2JD.
Media, privacy & conduct
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Some sessions, workshops, showcases, or presentations will be recorded, livestreamed, photographed, or documented for educational, promotional, research, and community purposes.
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Sessions, workshops, showcases, and presentations will be recorded, livestreamed, photographed, or otherwise documented for educational, promotional, research, and community purposes.
Participants may be included in such recordings. Separate consent will be obtained where required for the use of personal data, including images or audio of identifiable individuals, for promotional purposes.
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Participant information will be used for hackathon administration, communications, and related programme activities in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection requirements. Personal data will be deleted 12 months after the Hackathon.
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Yes. All participants are expected to contribute professionally, respectfully, collaboratively, and responsibly throughout the hackathon. Harassment, discrimination, misuse of systems, or unsafe behaviour will not be tolerated.
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