Quantum Computing Holds Promise for Banks, Executives Say
09 November 2019 - 4:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Castellanos
BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- When quantum computing hits the market, the
financial-services industry could be the first to benefit, a
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive said at a quantum-computing
panel event.
"In the universe of industries where there is a potential
quantum advantage, you could argue that finance has got the
shortest path to impact," said Jeremy Glick, head of
research-and-development engineering at Goldman Sachs.
That's because a quantum algorithm could be deployed to a new
financial model in days or weeks, while approving a new material or
drug discovered by a quantum computer is likely to take years, he
said at Thursday's event, hosted by International Business Machines
Corp.
But there's a catch. Two, actually. First, no one is sure
exactly how quantum computing could transform finance. "I think the
big win is finding something entirely new, and we haven't found
that yet," Mr. Glick said.
The second catch concerns quantum computing itself. Quantum
computers promise to be extremely powerful -- but no
commercial-grade quantum machine has been built yet, although IBM
and other companies are developing the hardware necessary to combat
technical challenges.
With ideas at a premium and the hardware still to come, one
thing the finance industry can do is to gain the skills necessary
to be "quantum-conversant," Mr. Glick said, meaning professionals
need to be well-versed in quantum computing and how the technology
can be applied to finance and other industries.
College students could, for example, study quantum computing as
a minor and then work with banks and regulators on applications, he
said.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is working to cultivate
quantum-computing skills for some employees, Nikitas Stamatopoulos,
the bank's vice president of quantitative research, said at the
event.
Since late 2017, JPMorgan has been collaborating with
researchers at IBM to experiment with quantum computing. A working
group from the bank has been running tests via the cloud on IBM's
early-stage quantum-computing machine, suitable for small-scale
experiments.
The team has found that quantum computing could be used to speed
up computationally intensive option-pricing and risk-assessment
calculations.
But it's still in the early stages of discovering what's
possible, because a commercial-grade quantum computer hasn't been
built. "If we had one today, what would we do? The answer today is
not very clear," Mr. Stamatopoulos said.
Write to Sara Castellanos at sara.castellanos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 08, 2019 11:51 ET (16:51 GMT)
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