Finextra schedules community finance webinar before 2026 hackathon

Finextra Research will host an online webinar on Sept. 1, 2026, ahead of the Sustainable Finance Live 2026 hackathon, with a focus on community-led finance, social banking and regenerative finance. The session is scheduled for 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST and 10:00 EDT, and will examine how local investment models could support underserved groups and regional economies, according to Finextra Research.

The event is framed around the design of a coordination layer for community, place and stewardship. In practical terms, Finextra Research says the discussion will consider how shared infrastructure, open-source tools and community data can help participants coordinate resources, exchange value and test more inclusive financial systems.

Hackathon to focus on local needs

The webinar will prepare participants for the Sustainable Finance Live 2026 hackathon, which Finextra Research says will address the overlapping requirements of modern communities. The agenda names clean water, public space, affordable and high-quality food, energy, housing, high streets, clubs and local services as areas of focus.

Finextra Research says the hackathon will bring collaborative innovation into contact with practical tools and real-world challenges. Participants are expected to use open-source platforms and shared infrastructure to develop potential solutions for mobilising resources and supporting community-level financial decision-making.

The programme will also examine commitment pooling and social banking. Finextra Research presents these as models that could give underserved groups a more active role in financial decisions and strengthen local economies. Commitment pooling generally describes arrangements in which participants combine pledges or resources toward a shared objective, while social banking focuses on financial services designed around social outcomes as well as financial access.

Scaling beyond pilots

A central question for the webinar is whether regenerative finance and community investment models can move from local experiments into financial infrastructure with broader use. Finextra Research says the discussion will look at how models developed in pilots could become interconnected systems that embed social and environmental value into future financial infrastructure.

The registration page lists Richard Peers, founder of ResponsibleRisk and contributing editor at Finextra, as moderator. Finextra Research says the webinar will include a panel of industry experts, though no additional speakers are named on the event page.

Registration is available through Finextra Research. The sign-up form requests business contact details, organisation, country and institution type, and includes consent options for receiving Finextra communications and third-party emails, alongside links to Finextra’s privacy policy and cookie preferences.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.