C:\>DIR launches Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon

Written By Tim Brown

The Cambridge Digital Innovation and Regulation Initiative (C:\>DIR), hosted by Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii), has launched of the C:\>DIR Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon.

A first-of-its-kind global initiative, the Hackathon brings together policymakers, regulators, academics, financial institutions, fintechs, regtechs and technology innovators to collaboratively develop agentic AI capabilities and prototypes for central banks, financial regulators and other public authorities, for example, data regulators, competition agencies, communications and energy regulators. It launches with the support of the BIS Innovation Hub, the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) and the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), alongside 35+ global supporters, ecosystem partners and academic institutions including the Networks for Humanity, the Ethereum Foundation, Google, Swift, Ant International, Moneybox, Innovate Finance, GFTN and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

As AI agents are increasingly deployed to execute complex workflows and automate decisions at machine speed across financial and governance systems, public authorities face challenges around oversight, accountability, consumer protection as well as systematic risks, with the pace and autonomy of these systems beginning to outstrip the tools regulators currently equipped to supervise them. Recent speeches and reports by senior central bankers and regulators in the UK and around the world reflect that challenging reality. Yet agentic AI also presents significant opportunities for regulators themselves: deployed thoughtfully and strategically, the same capabilities can help public authorities improve efficiency, enhance oversight, streamline processes and mitigate risks — enabling supervisors to move at the speed of the markets they oversee, rather than lagging behind them.

The Global ‘Agentic Regulator’ Hackathon is designed to help realise that opportunity and narrow the widening gap. It enables multidisciplinary teams from public and private sectors to harness agentic AI to build practical, explainable and deployable prototypes that strengthen trust, resilience and accountability across an increasingly autonomous financial system and digital economy.

The Hackathon will focus on six priority problem spaces:

  • Agentic Financial and High Stakes AI Advice (supported by Moneybox)

  • Agentic Payments, Commerce & their Oversight (supported by Ant International)

  • Decentralised Market Infrastructure, Smart Contracts & AI Agents (supported by the Ethereum Foundation)

  • AI-Driven Fraud and Scams

  • Know Your Agent (KY-A), Digital Verification and Digital Public Infrastructure

  • Market Manipulation, Agentic Herding & Stability

The Preliminary Round of the Global Hackathon is now open, and prospective teams are invited to submit their Concept Note and the enclosed schematics by 31 July. Shortlisted teams will take part in a Final Round of prototype build phase, accessing synthetic datasets and shared tooling and building on the NayaOne technology platform, with dedicated compute credits provided. 

The Hackathon carries a total prize pool of US$100,000. Submissions will be judged by a panel of globally eminent regulatory leaders who are fellows of the 2026 C:\>DIR Cambridge Regulator Visiting Fellowship Programme — with the final results announced at the C:\>DIR Summit — Digital Regulation in the Age of Agentic AI on 18 September 2026 in Cambridge. Winning teams will also be invited to present at this year’s Singapore FinTech Festival in November, hosted by GFTN with complimentary tickets (two tickets to SFF per winning team).

Tim Brown