Imminent Quantum Threat: Banks Are Already Preparing In France And Singapore

The French and Singaporean banking giants are taking a decisive step in the race for post-quantum security. The Banque de France (BDF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have just achieved a world first: successfully testing a banking communication system resistant to future quantum attacks.

A pioneering experimentation against the quantum threat

On November 7, 2024, in Singapore, the technical teams from the BDF and MAS completed a series of groundbreaking tests. Using a plugin specially developed for Microsoft Outlook, the two institutions succeeded in exchanging emails secured by post-quantum cryptography (PQC), a first in the international banking sector.

This experimentation is based on the standards established by the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), thus ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructures.

The stakes are high in the face of the threat “harvest now, decrypt later”. This strategy, feared by experts, would allow malicious actors to store encrypted data today to decrypt it once the quantum computers are powerful enough.

Denis Beau, first vice-governor of the BDF, emphasizes that “these results reassure us about our ability to make our inter-institutional communications resilient.”

This advancement marks the beginning of a profound transformation of banking security systems, which have so far been vulnerable to future quantum computing capabilities.

Technical challenges and strengthened international cooperation

The implementation of this new technology raises several major challenges. Post-quantum encryption keys are significantly larger than their classical counterparts, necessitating an adaptation of existing infrastructures.

The technical report published by the MAS highlights the lack of standards for hybridizing PQC algorithms with existing systems, a major obstacle to overcome.

To address these issues, France and Singapore are intensifying their collaboration. The two countries are actively participating in the Leap project of the Bank for International Settlements, aiming to develop PQC solutions for international payment networks.

Singapore has also launched a co-financing program to encourage the development of PQC use cases, while France is strengthening its investments in quantum research.

The French-Singaporean teams are already planning the next phase of their research, targeting the integration of PQC into real-time payment systems and central bank digital currencies infrastructures.