Please note that only FINOS members can propose new projects. If you're interested in membership, see https://www.finos.org/membership-benefits#become-a-member.

Onboarding Process

Completing an onboarding of a project into FINOS requires following these 5 main steps:

1. Describing the Contribution led by contributor
2. Approval led by FINOS TOC
3. Preparing for Onboarding led by contributor
4. Onboarding completed by FINOS Infra
5. Announcement led by FINOS Marketing

1. Describing The Contribution

Introduction

Reg Central is an automated, AI-enabled solution developed to enhance Regulatory Change Management for compliance professionals in the financial industry. By centralizing and analyzing regulatory changes, Reg Central provides contextualized action plans that empower Compliance Analysts to effectively navigate the evolving regulatory landscape.

Business Problem

In the fast-paced financial sector, staying compliant with constantly changing regulations is a significant challenge. Compliance teams often struggle to efficiently track, analyze, and respond to regulatory updates from multiple sources, such as the CFTC, CSA, and SEC. The manual processes involved can lead to delays, increased risk of non-compliance, and resource inefficiencies.

Proposed Solution

Reg Central addresses these challenges by leveraging advanced AI technologies, including Large Language Models (LLM) and components of the AWS Bedrock platform. The solution automates the analysis of regulatory changes, generating actionable insights tailored to specific updates. This allows compliance teams to prioritize and implement necessary actions swiftly and accurately. By providing an open-source solution, we aim to foster collaboration and innovation within the financial services industry, enabling organizations to enhance their regulatory compliance processes.

Goals

The primary goals of Reg Central are to:

• Increase Efficiency: Streamline the process of tracking and analyzing regulatory changes, reducing the manual effort required by compliance teams.
• Enhance Compliance: Provide timely and actionable insights to help organizations remain compliant with evolving regulations.
• Promote Open Source Collaboration: Share our solution with the community to encourage further development and innovation in regulatory compliance tools.

How it would work

1. Installation: Deploy Reg Central on your preferred cloud platform, utilizing AWS Bedrock for enhanced processing capabilities.
2. Data Integration: Connect to various regulatory data sources to enable real-time analysis of regulatory changes.
3. Action Plan Generation: Leverage the AI-driven insights to create contextualized action plans for Compliance Analysts.
4. Continuous Improvement: Contribute to the open-source project by adding new features, improving existing functionalities, and sharing best practices with the community.

Product Definition and Features

Reg Central is designed for compliance professionals and organizations seeking to improve their regulatory change management processes. Key features include:

• Automated Regulation Analysis: AI-driven analysis of regulatory changes from multiple sources.
• Contextualized Action Plans: Tailored insights for Compliance Analysts to facilitate timely responses.
• Integration with AWS Bedrock: Scalable and robust architecture for processing regulatory data.
• Open Source: Full transparency and community collaboration to enhance the solution over time.

Reg Central aims to revolutionize regulatory compliance in the financial industry by providing a comprehensive, efficient, and collaborative solution for managing regulatory changes.

Tentative Roadmap

Phase 1: Initial Development

• Core Functionality Development

  • Build the foundational architecture of Reg Central.
  • Implement automated regulation analysis using LLM technology.
  • Develop the initial version of contextualized action plans.

• Integration with AWS Bedrock

  • Set up the integration with AWS Bedrock for enhanced processing capabilities.
  • Ensure scalability and performance optimization.

• User Interface Design

  • Create a user-friendly interface for Compliance Analysts to interact with the solution.

Phase 2: Beta Testing and Feedback

• Beta Release

  • Launch a beta version of Reg Central for select users within the organization.
  • Gather feedback on usability, functionality, and performance.

• Feature Refinement

  • Analyze user feedback to identify areas for improvement.
  • Implement necessary adjustments to enhance user experience.

• Documentation and Training

  • Develop comprehensive user documentation and training materials.
  • Conduct training sessions for early adopters.

Phase 3: Open Source Launch

• Open Source Release

  • Release Reg Central as an open-source project on GitHub.
  • Encourage community contributions and collaboration.

• Community Engagement

  • Host webinars and workshops to promote the solution and gather community feedback.
  • Establish a forum for users to share insights, challenges, and enhancements.

Phase 4: Feature Enhancements

• Advanced Analytics

  • Introduce advanced analytics capabilities for deeper insights into regulatory changes.
  • Implement machine learning algorithms for predictive analysis.

• Integration with Additional Data Sources

  • Expand the solution to integrate with more regulatory data sources and APIs.
  • Enhance the breadth of regulatory coverage.

• Customization Options

  • Develop features that allow organizations to customize action plans based on their specific compliance needs.

Phase 5: Continuous Improvement and Support (2026 and Beyond)

• Ongoing Development

  • Continuously monitor user feedback and industry trends to identify new features and enhancements.
  • Regularly update the solution to address emerging regulatory requirements.

• Support and Maintenance

  • Establish a support framework for users, including troubleshooting and feature requests.
  • Maintain an active development community to ensure the longevity and relevance of Reg Central.

• Future Innovations

  • Explore opportunities for integrating AI advancements and new technologies to further enhance Reg Central's capabilities.
  • Consider partnerships with other organizations to expand the solution's reach and impact.

Current State

At the time of writing, the project is a deployable app with limited functionality. It was built using AWS Bedrock and Claude 2.0 as it's major components.

Existing Materials

If materials already exist, provide a link to them that Foundation staff can access - if it's in a private GitHub.com repositories, you should invite the finos-admin user with R/O permissions to those repositories

• GitHub / GitLab Repository (delete as appropriate)
  • URL for the repository (if it exists)
  • Project Name (enter here)
  • @finos-admin has been given read-only permissions if private
• Is Continuous Integration used? If so, which system is used?
• Was the project ever released? (yes / no)
  • If so, are releases public? (yes / no)
  • And what's the latest released version?
• Existing Project Documentation ( URL / microsite / PDF etc detail here)
• Does the name have a registered trademark? (yes / no)
• Is there a logo? (yes / no)
• High-Level Presentation prepared for Technical Oversight Committee (~15 mins)
• Are meetings currently held for the project? (yes / no + details)
• Are meeting minutes, agenda and attendance tracked? (yes / no + details)

Development Team

Maintainers

Who will be the project maintainer(s)? Provide full name, affiliation, work email address, and GitHub / GitLab username.

Name	Affiliation	Work Email Address	Github / GitLab username
Loren Schwartz	CIBC	loren.schwartz@cibc.com	@lorenschwartz

Confirmed contributors

If applicable, list all of the individuals that have expressed interest in and/or are committed to contributing to this project, including full name, affiliation, work email address, and GitHub.com username

Name	Affiliation	Work Email Address	Github / GitLab username
Contributor1 Example	Example LTD	con1@example.com	@con1xampleabc
Contributor2 Example	Example LTD	con2@example.com	@con2examplexyz

Target Contributors

Describe the contributor profile (background, position, organization) you would like to get contributions from.

Project Communication Channel(s)

• Contributor to ask maintainers which communications channels they'd like to use:
• Asynchronous
  • GitHub Issues (public)
  • GitHub Discussions (public)
  • GitHub Team Discussions (consisting of the above described contributors)
    • Public
    • Private
  • Mailing-list (groups.io)
  • FINOS Slack Channel (consisting of the above described contributors)
    • General (public) (supply channel name)
    • Leadership (private) (supply channel name)
• Synchronous
  • Recurring meetings

Understanding FINOS Onboarding Requirements

As a project onboarding into FINOS, you will need to familiarize yourself and your contributor team with the following materials:

• FINOS overview (if necessary)
• FINOS Maintainers cheatsheet
• FINOS Project/Standards Governance
• FINOS Project Lifecycle

Record The Contribution (FINOS Infra)

• (optional) Identify and Assign FINOS Strategic Advisor
• Submit contribution to LF by opening a ticket via https://jira.linuxfoundation.org/browse/SS and marking contribution as "Exploratory"; attach a summary of the Business Problem and Proposed Solution (above) of the project.

2. Approval

The FINOS Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) is responsible for approving FINOS project contributions; feel free to check their contribution principles.

If needed, the TOC will request a follow up either via GitHub Issue comments or by inviting project leads to one of their recurrent meetings.

Tasks (for FINOS Infra/TOC)

• Prioritise this issue on the TOC Backlog
• Assign this issue to @eddie-knight
• Add the ready-for-tsc label
• TOC to invite contributors to present their project
• FINOS TOC approves/rejects the contribution
• Ask @jgavronsky to mark contribution as "Engaged" within LF systems
• (optional) If additional socialization is required, the Executive Director may bring projects to the FINOS Governing Board
• Update the contribution status to "Engaged" by sending another email to LF Legal Representative with the name of the project and its new status.

TOC Findings / Report

TOC to enter findings summary here.

3. Preparing For Onboarding

Before the FINOS team can onboard your project, there are a few housekeeping that need to be taken care of. These must be completed by the contributor, with help if required from the FINOS Infra.

Kick-off meeting

• Set up kick-off meeting with project leads
• Run kick-off meeting
  • Walk through the checklist in part 1, ensure all the questions are answered and remove items that don't apply
  • Write and send contribution proposal announcement (optional - see below)

Proposal (Lead Maintainer)

• Lead maintainer to send out announcement to community@finos.org using this template:

  Dear FINOS Community, 
  
  We would like to propose a new FINOS project. Please review the proposal details at (_TODO: add link to the GitHub issue proposal_).
  
  If you're interested in participating, please :+1: the GitHub issue proposal and drop a comment with your name, org and email
  
  Thanks a lot,
  

Logo / Trademarks

• Sign the project contribution agreement to allow FINOS to act on behalf of the contributor for accounts related to the project (e.g., GitHub, domain names, social media) and to optionally manage trademark assignment
• Request logo design from help@finos.org (if needed)
• The codebase doesn’t include any patent or copyright that conflicts with FINOS Governance and bylaws. (Infra team to validate with FINOS Legal team if anything important is raised)

FINOS Project Blueprint

• finos-admin is Admin of the GitHub repository to transfer
• Apply project blueprint contents - see our docs on collaboration infrastructure
  • README.md file contains the sections in the README Template
  • Project FINOS badge in README (incubating)
  • OpenSSF Passing Badge
  • License in README
  • Contributing in README
  • CONTRIBUTING.md
  • LICENSE (replace {} placeholders)
  • Ensure that the proper project governance is in the CONTRIBUTING.md file
• All incubating criteria are checked and documented below

Add documentation here

4. FINOS Onboarding

This is performed by FINOS Infra once the three previous stages are complete, with support from the contributor and the FINOS Infra team.

Maintainers, Contributors and CLAs

• Identify other existing contributors (assuming there's a contribution history (eg Git history)
• Check if maintainers and other contributors are all covered by FINOS CLA
• Engage with FINOS Legal team to figure out what’s needed to cover all maintainers and contributors with FINOS CLA
• Reach out to contributors and employers to coordinate CLA signatures
• Invite GitHub usernames to GitHub FINOS Org
• Create <project-name>-maintainers GitHub team and invite users

Validation (only if code is contributed)

• Backup (even with screenshot) GitHub permissions of the repository to transfer
• Check GitHub repository transfer requirements:
  • finos-admin has Admin to all repositories to transfer
  • finos-admin ia allowed to transfer repositories out of the org
  • if the repository is owned by a user (and not an org), the user must be able to transfer the repository to finos-admin
• The codebase doesn’t have HIGH or CRITICAL CVEs across direct and transitive libraries
• The codebase doesn’t have any unfriendly licenses across direct and transitive libraries
• (optional - if a build system is provided) The build process runs successfully
• The codebase doesn’t include any patent or copyright that conflicts with FINOS Governance and bylaws (to be validated with FINOS Legal team)
• All incubating criteria are met (review documentation provided above)

Code transfer

• Transfer all code assets as GitHub repositories under github.com/finos
• Rename main branch to main (instead of master)
• Configure finos-admins (Maintain role) and finos-staff (Triage role) team permissions

Project Communication Channel(s)

• Create the identified communication channels during infra set up
• Create mailing-list on lists.finos.org (if requested)
  • Enable Hubspot Sync for all project mailing lists created
  • Aggregate mailing lists to community@finos.org
  • Update marketing lists (see Email List and Email filter fields), particularly Hubspot all community list
• Create Slack channels if requested.
• Link communication channels linked front-and-center in the project README.md

Repository setup

• Enable EasyCLA
• Add project to metadata
• Add identities, orgs and affiliations to metadata (deprecated by EasyCLA)
• Add logo to FINOS landscape
  • Create staging branch on finos/finos-landscape
  • Merge finos/metadata changes on master (will udpdate landscape.yml in finos/finos-landscape)
  • Create PR from staging branch on finos/finos-landscape
  • Review Netlify preview
  • Merge PR
• Add project maintainers emails to finos-project-maintainers@finos.org list
• Add project maintainers GitHub usernames to the project-maintainers Team
• Ask @jgavronsky to mark contribution as "Active" within LF systems
• (best effort) Update release coordinates and code namespace to include finos
• Check that CVE (and preferably static code analysis, if applicable) scanning is in place
• Enable automated dependency update, using Renovate
• Enable branch protection (Require a pull request before merging)
• (optional) Enable meeting attendance tracking
• (optional) Onboard into legend.finos.org/studio

5. Announcement

(Lead: Project Lead and FINOS Infra team)

• Update the contribution status to "Active" by sending another email to LF Legal Representative with the name of the project and its new status.
• Lead maintainer works with FINOS marketing to send out announcement to announce@finos.org , checkout announcement template at the Contribution page
• Notify FINOS marketing (@grizzwolf + finos-marketing internal Slack channel)