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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is bringing together financial institutions, quantum technology providers and national research laboratories to examine how quantum machine learning could strengthen efforts to detect money laundering and fraud.
The initiative, known as the Quantum Experimentation Group, is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2027. It will provide a platform for participants to test potential applications of quantum computing in financial services, beginning with challenges linked to financial crime.
FCA establishes Quantum Experimentation Group
The group will bring together industry participants and researchers to investigate how quantum computing could address complex problems in financial services.
Participants will work with a synthetic dataset developed by the FCA. The artificially generated data is intended to address one of the major challenges facing technology experimentation: access to suitable data for testing and research.
Using the dataset, members will explore practical applications of quantum machine learning and share their findings to inform further experimentation across the sector.
The FCA also expects the initiative to improve its understanding of the technology’s capabilities and limitations, the barriers firms may encounter when testing it, and the potential implications for financial regulation.
Financial crime detection among initial use cases
Financial crime will be the group’s starting point, with participants examining whether quantum machine learning could improve the identification of suspicious activity, money laundering and fraudulent transactions.
The technology’s potential application in financial services has attracted interest because of the complexity and scale of transaction networks that institutions must monitor. However, its practical value for detecting illicit activity remains an area for investigation.
Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, said early experimentation would be important in determining where quantum technology could make a meaningful contribution to the sector.
She explained that bringing together financial firms, technology providers and researchers would help build industry readiness and identify practical applications for shared challenges, starting with financial crime.
FCA seeks industry participation ahead of 2027 launch
Financial institutions, technology providers and research laboratories interested in joining the Quantum Experimentation Group have until the end of 2026 to register their interest.
The FCA intends to use the initiative to generate evidence about the opportunities and constraints associated with quantum computing, rather than assume its suitability for existing financial services processes.
The findings could help inform how firms approach future testing and how regulators assess emerging technologies as they develop.
Banks already exploring quantum technology for fraud detection
The FCA’s initiative builds on growing interest among financial institutions in the potential applications of quantum computing.
NatWest recently joined an innovation programme to examine how the technology could help identify fraud and illicit activity across large transaction networks.
Lloyds has also worked with IBM on an experiment investigating whether quantum computing could improve the identification of money mule networks.
These projects reflect the financial sector’s interest in exploring advanced computing techniques to address increasingly complex financial crime risks.
As the FCA prepares to launch its experimentation group, the focus will be on establishing where quantum machine learning can deliver practical value, understanding its limitations and assessing the implications for financial services regulation.
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