Reports have revealed today that the British multinational investment bank and financial services, HSBC, and the American multinational technology corporation, IBM are currently working together on exploring applications for quantum computing in financial services.
The new three-year partnership aims to strengthen HSBC’s quantum computing capabilities and assure the bank’s organizational readiness to fully exploit the technology.
The bank will join the IBM Quantum Accelerator program as part of the agreement, giving it access to IBM’s premium plan of quantum computing systems, including its recently announced 127-qubit processor, Eagle, as well as IBM’s quantum expertise to help validate and advance potential quantum use cases.
The British financial services will explore the use of quantum computing for pricing and portfolio optimization, as well as risk mitigation, such as detecting and addressing fraudulent behavior, in order to achieve its net zero goals.
To develop a specialized competence within its innovation team, the bank will upskill workers in quantum technology through internal training programs and actively attract quantum computing research scientists.
The Quantum Decade, a recent report from IBM’s Institute for Business Value, outlines how quantum computing’s exponential power could dramatically reshape how financial institutions and other organizations tackle their most pressing challenges in a post-pandemic world, with a discovery-driven approach that could spur new hyper-automated and deeply integrated business models.
More than 175 clients use IBM Quantum technology to improve quantum computing and explore practical applications, including Fortune 500 corporations, start-ups, academic institutions, and research labs.
Quantum computing is being researched and explored by the IBM Quantum team and clients across a range of industries and fields, including finance, energy, chemistry, materials science, optimization, and machine learning, to name a few.
Speaking on the collaboration, Colin Bell, the Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bank plc and HSBC Europe, said:
“We are innovating for the future by investing in quantum computing to make banking easier for our consumers.
This technology has the potential to change the way we manage parts of the bank by tackling problems that traditional computers may never be able to solve on their own.
Our collaboration with IBM, a renowned quantum computing supplier, is critical to realizing the potential of this potentially game-changing technology in financial services.”
On the other hand, the Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research, Dr. Darío Gil, said:
“Real-world quantum computing applications are eagerly awaited by financial institutions and organizations around the world, and finding industry applications for quantum computing should be a major pillar of any company strategy today.
“We’re eager to work with HSBC to study quantum technology’s uses in their business operations and assist them realize their goals.” Darío added.
