DCSTW Community Reception - Creating Global Startups

The Nerdiest Hour on Earth...with Drinks Start your engines! Join the DC Fintech Week crew and our co-hosts, TRM Labs and Flourish Ventures, for the 2026 DC Fintech Week Kickoff Happy Hour. Shift into high gear and network with global finance experts, prominent fintech innovators, entrepreneurs, regulators and market movers from across the financial ecosystem. Drinks, conversation, and a row of racing simulators for anyone who wants to find out whether central bankers really do brake early. Lights out and away we go at 5:00! With a welcome from Chris Brummer, founder of DC Fintech Week. Register by Wednesday, October 7, to claim your spot. RSVPs are required and space will be limited. Happy hour registration is separate from DC Fintech Week conference registration. To register for the conference, click here.

Civic Tech DC Project Night at Virtru! Join us for an evening of collaborative problem-solving as we work on a variety of civic tech projects together. Project needs vary but often include brainstorming, researching, writing, coding, or analyzing data. Check out our website for a list of projects which may make an appearance! Meet other civic tech enthusiasts. Learn new skills. Contribute to a project to improve a local civic issue. All are welcome and collaboration is encouraged. Laptops are recommended but not required. Rough schedule: 6pm - 6:30pm — Check in, hang out, grab a bite 6:30 - 6:45pm — Introductions and announcements 6:45 - 8:15pm — Break out into project groups 8:15 - 8:30pm — Reconvene to discuss what we accomplished 8:30 - 9pm — Happy hour at a nearby bar (tbd, for those interested) Food will be provided!

Market abuse no longer needs a person at a keyboard. Autonomous agents that learn surveillance models and trade around them, deepfaked guidance, synthetic-identity rings, and on-chain wash trading now operate across venues at machine speed. This program brings together regulators, investigators, and industry leaders to examine how detection and enforcement can keep pace: moving from rules to behavior and from forensic to real-time, building AI-native compliance, and gaming out a 2030 in which both attacker and defender are autonomous and quantum computing challenges today's cryptographic assumptions. Agenda 1:00 – 1:15 PM “This Never Happened” Greg Ruppert, Chief Regulatory Operations Officer, FINRA 1:15 – 1:45 PM When the Adversary is Autonomous Moderator: Yesha Yadav, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School Moad Fahmi, Chief Fintech Officer, Bermuda Monetary Authority Colin Payne, Head of Innovation, The Financial Conduct Authority Puja Singh, Senior Financial Sector Expert, International Monetary Fund 1:45 – 2:00 Break 2:00 – 2:30 PM Thinking Beyond Tomorrow: The 2030 Threatcast Moderator: Chris Brummer, Chief Executive Officer, Fintech Foundation Taylor Lindman, Chief Counsel, Crypto Task Force, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Brent McIntosh, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Citigroup Inc. Jelena McWilliams, President, Plaid; Former Chair, FDIC Beju Shah, Head of Toronto Innovation Centre, Bank for International Settlements - Innovation Hub 2:30 – 3:00 PM Building the Response at Machine Speed: From the War Room to the Compliance Stack Moderator: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs Jérôme Beaumont, Executive Secretary, Egmont Group Raunak Mittal, Advisor at Bank for International Settlements, Innovation Hub Michael Oh, Senior Director, Blockchain Lab, FINRA 3:00 – 3:15 PM Innovating and Regulating in Times of Uncertainty Moderator: Lauren Oppenheimer, Director, Brunswick Group Elisa de Anda Madrazo, Senior Official, Ministry of Financ

You don’t have to go to Munich to enjoy Oktoberfest, join CNAS for a night of complimentary beer, brats, and chats about all things tech! Event Details Thursday, October 15 | 5:30 - 8:00 PM 1600 7th Street NW, Washington, DC We'll see you there!