C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon
The gap in AI adoption is growing
Join us in bridging that gap at the C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon, the first ever hackathon to build agentic AI solutions for public authorities
DATE: 8 July - 18 September 2026
There is a gap in agentic AI adoption
FinTechs and financial institutions are moving 2× faster than regulators - a growing gap in the AI adoption race.
What?
The C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon brings together regulators, AI researchers, engineers, academics, financial institutions, FinTechs, infrastructure providers, and technology partners to create agentic AI solutions for regulators.
The hackathon enables 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 is 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 invite participants to form collaborative teams and also welcome 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 welcome 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 will select one or multiple problem spaces to work on:
Teams must select at least one of the following priority tracks for their agentic prototypes:
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AI-ENABLED FINANCIAL ADVISE
Mitigate risks of consumers using autonomous LLMs & agentic advisors for high-stake decisions, including model biases, hallucinations, lack of explainability and regulatory breaches.
SPONSORED BY MONEYBOX -
AI-DRIVEN FRAUD & SCAMS
Combat the industrial-scale weaponization of AI, including deepfakes, synthetic identities, and hyper-personalized scams to deepen trust and protect consumers.
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AGENTIC PAYMENTS PROTOCOLS & OVERSIGHT
Create oversight for high-velocity, machine-to-machine agentic payments, for instance to detect and prevent automated illicit transactions, develop ‘Know Your Agent’ protocols, and agentic solutions for solving accountability and redress issues.
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KY-A, DIGITAL VERIFICATION & DPI
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).
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DECENTRALIZED INFRASTRUCTURE & AGENTS
Build AI agents to help public authorities to understand and monitor on-chain activities and mitigate potential systemic vulnerabilities.
SPONSORED BY ETHEREUM FOUNDATION -
MARKET MANIPULATION & HERDING
Create agentic solutions that will monitor and mitigate against potential market manipulation and herding by autonomous AI agents.
And explore how to use AI to automate key workflows across the policy and regulatory cycle with a regulatory authority:
Preliminary Round
For the Preliminary Round, Teams will be asked to submit a Concept Note for each of the problem spaces selected. The Concept Note should not be more than 1,500 words and must include schematics. A template is included below.
Concept Notes must be submitted by 31 July 2026.
Final Round
Selected teams will be given access to an online hackathon platform with synthetic data sets and tooling to build prototypes over the course of a week as part of a virtual hackathon from 1st September to 8th September.
Each team will produce a standardised submission and all code and architectural designs. Open-source is 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 are encouraged to outline how their proposed solution(s) can be scaled and transferred across regulatory domains and jurisdictions.
Every prototype must include and demonstrate approaches to the following guardrails:
• Human-in-the-loop
• Auditability & Traceability
• Safety & governance controls
Judging & Showcase
Participants will participate in a virtual Demo Day + Live Voting with 100+ regulators.
The top solutions will be selected to present at finals for judging by C:\>DIR Cambridge Regulator Fellows, including 15+ senior global regulatory leaders who will assess the solutions developed.
The winners will be announced as part of the C:\>DIR Summit which will be held in Cambridge on 18th September 2026.
Promising solutions may be contacted at a later date and be invited to enter an accelerator or incubation track.
When?
8 July to 31 July 2026: Preliminary Round
31 July 2026: 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 Cambridge Fellows
18 September 2026: Winner Announcement during the C:\>DIR Summit
Why Participate?
• Collaborate with regulators and innovators worldwide
• Develop solutions to address real public-sector challenges
• Showcase your work on a platform with 100+ global policymakers and industry leaders
• Contribute to building the future of trusted AI governance
• Receive £300 in cloud compute if selected for the Final Round
Prizes
Prize pool of up to
$100,000
Interested in participating?
Get in touch if you would like to become a partner or a sponsor: hackathon@cdir.global
Frequently Asked Questions
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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Yes. Teams can consist of 1+ individual.
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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 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.
Hackathon - prelimimary 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 may undergo both AI-assisted screening and expert review before final shortlisting decisions are made.
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The organisers currently anticipate shortlisting approximately 30 teams for the Final Round.
The final number may vary depending on the quality and diversity of submissions received.
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 following problem spaces, including:
Agentic Financial Advice
Agentic Payments & Oversight
Smart Contracts & Agents
Agentic-Driven Fraud & Scams
Identity, KY-A and DPI
Market Manipulation and Algorithmic Herding
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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
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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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 may be showcased to public authorities registering as Observers as part of a live voting process.
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. Cash prizes and other recognition opportunities will be awarded to selected winning teams.
Regulatory partners
Supporters
Ecosystem
Academic partners
Academic partners
