JPMorgan Emerges As The Market Leader In Tackling Threats Presented By Quantum Computing

JPMorgan was recently found to be by far the most prepared financial institution when it comes to tackling both threats and opportunities for banks presented by new advancements regarding the development of quantum computing.

These findings came from a recent research published by Evident, which says that almost 80% of the top 50 banks tracked by the company are now engaging with quantum technology. The usage of this technology could have a massive potential impact on the performance of banks, as some estimates say that quantum computing use cases in finance could create $622 billion in value by 2035.

Evident’s research analyzed the quantum activity of each individual bank, comparing details such as the size of their quantum talent teams, patents, hiring rate for new talent, as well as investments and public engagement. It found that JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) exceeds its peers by a wide margin, accounting for two-thirds of all quantum job postings among the tracked banks.

JPMC has also published more than half of all research papers relating to quantum computing, and it is already seeing value from its quantum-inspired algorithms when it comes to areas such as cybersecurity and portfolio optimization.

The research also shows that many European banks have advanced far in this sector, representing seven of the top 15 most active banks in the sector. One of them is HSBC, which integrated quantum key distribution into forex trading and tokenized gold in order to future-proof cybersecurity.

Another example is Intesa Sanpaolo, which is exploring quantum applications when it comes to fraud detection, credit scoring, and derivative pricing. 

Why Banks Must Start Preparing For Quantum Computing Adoption

Evident’s co-founder and co-CEO, Alexandra Mousavizadeh, stated that quantum computing has the potential to transform a specific subset of use cases, unlike artificial intelligence, which is embedded across every part of the banks. As such, it is more precise, but it has the potential to strongly impact areas where it is applied.

“Rather than incremental improvements, it will completely transform areas such as portfolio optimization, credit scoring, and fraud detection far beyond today’s computing capabilities,” she added. However, she concluded by saying that quantum computing is still years away from its full-scale deployment. Even so, banks are already laying the groundwork now, in order to gain a competitive edge at the intersection of AI and quantum computing.

According to her, banks that fail to prepare for the arrival of quantum technology will face both security risks, as well as missed opportunities once it starts being more freely implemented.