By now, most people will have heard of quantum computing. But a much smaller subset will be aware of how the technology works and the full range of potential use cases.
It will surprise some to learn that modern quantum theory has been around for a century. But the difficulty, as well as the cost in getting quantum computers to work, have proved a major obstacles.
In recent years, however, many of those practical challenges have been overcome, paving the way for an explosion in interest in the technology from both academic researchers as well as private institutions. This has been the case in Britain more so than almost any other developed nation.
There were as many as 141 applications for patents relating to quantum in the UK in 2024, according to figures obtained from the UK Patents Journal, a jump of 57% on to the previous year and a fivefold increased compared to a decade ago. On top of that, 36 patent applications were filed in the first quarter of 2025, suggesting that interest in the technology continues to grow.
What has been responsible for this surge in research? Prior to 2020, quantum patent applications were largely the preserve of universities, computing giants like IBM and a handful of telecommunications firms such as BT and Nokia.
But over the past few years that has flipped — the share of applications made by universities and telcos has declined, while a whole suite of industries have applied for quantum patents, in areas such as defence and transport.
Leading the way has been the banking sector. Banks had not applied for a single patent in the UK before 2022 — but so far this year they have accounted for as many as one in ten applications.
Nearly 80% of 50 large banks tracked by London-based banking insights business Evident AI appear to do “something” with quantum computing, based on an analysis of hiring, research, patents, investments and communications, while the number of people who work on quantum at banks has grown by 10% since August last year.
Part of that relates to the growing range of use cases that have been identified for the technology in financial services — such as fraud detection and predicting trading signals — as well as the growing need for advanced, frontier innovations in the sector due to the complexity of problems and the size of data sets.
“Quantum technologies will be crucial for advanced threat detection,” said Christian Sutherland, CEO of Edinburgh-based Caledonia Financial Group, which filed its first quantum patent on probability modelling in January.
“For example, quantum-based algorithms, such as the Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA), enable probabilistic scoring for transaction fraud detection. This process is effectively identifying anomalies, both internal and external, before financial harm occurs.
“Additionally, given that quantum computers will eventually render classical encryption methods obsolete, quantum cryptography will be essential to shield financial institutions from quantum-enabled cyber threats.
“In short, banks that fail to integrate quantum-resistant security today will find themselves perilously exposed in the not too distant future.”
Banks typically don’t drive foundational quantum breakthroughs independently, Sutherland says.
Leading US institutions like JPMorgan (partnering with IBM) and Goldman Sachs have been actively exploring quantum algorithms for risk optimisation and trading strategies. Major advances are often achieved through collaborative efforts among banks, quantum research institutions, and technology firms.
But the biggest banks in the UK are also making strides. While JPM tops Evident AI’s global ranking of banks by quantum adoption, London-based HSBC ranks a close second, with Standard Chartered not far behind. HSBC now sits among the top ten quantum patent filers in the UK, such is the rate at which has been submitting applications over the past couple of years.
Elena Strbac, Global Head, Data Science & Innovation, Corporate & Investment Banking, Standard Chartered, said: “As an industry end user of quantum computing, our strategy is to be prepared, from a knowledge perspective, for the practical scalable usage of quantum computers as the technology advances.
“This is because when quantum computing reaches full scale, it will be highly disruptive quickly, and being unprepared could come at a high cost. Filing patents is one way to formalise the knowledge and IP we have been building in this space.”
Threat detection, in particular in relation to fraud and money laundering, appears to be the most urgent use case for banks to get their heads round frontier quantum technology.
“the first step will be to shift from rules based detection to AI based detection,” Strbac said.
“Once there are performance benchmarks for AI, it will be important to explore whether using quantum AI techniques is likely to yield an advantage over the classical techniques, which could be in the form of better accuracy, higher speed or requiring less training data to solve the same problem.
“This will be key input to determine whether quantum is likely to be essential in this type of threat detection in future.”
But while the UK is doing much of the innovation, it risks falling behind on deploying the technology in the private sector, says Sutherland, who is seeking to bridge the gap between academia and the world of financial services.
“[It’s] a classic case of ‘world-class research, sluggish commercialisation’,” he said.
“The UK boasts some of the finest quantum research institutions globally: Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL… but when it comes to practical deployment of quantum banking solutions, we are trailing the US and China in applied quantum banking.
“American banks actively integrate quantum models into portfolio optimisation and trading, while Chinese banks deploy quantum encryption for transaction security. UK banks, including HSBC with its quantum security pilot, show promise but so far lag in widespread practical application.”
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