Santander Joins Quantum Safe Finance Forum

In 2024, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the EC3 Advisory Group on Financial Services established the Quantum Safe Financial Forum (QSFF). The QSFF is a collaborative effort to transition the financial sector to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC), particularly in Europe. This is in response to the potential threat of quantum computing undermining existing cryptography and impacting data security.

The QSFF includes experts from major EU, UK, and American banks and financial services providers, including Banco Santander, Barclays Bank, and Mastercard. The steering committee includes Jaime Gómez García (Banco Santander), Stewart Hackley (Barclays), and John Beric (Mastercard).

The Quantum Safe Financial Forum: A Collaborative Approach to Post Quantum Cryptography

In 2024, the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) of Europol established the Quantum Safe Financial Forum (QSFF). This initiative was developed in close collaboration with the EC3 Advisory Group on Financial Services. The QSFF is a collective effort aimed at addressing the transition to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) within the financial sector, with a specific emphasis on Europe.

The QSFF is composed of experts from several major commercial and central banks from the EU, UK, and the US, as well as other financial service providers, associations, and experts. This includes representatives from Banco Santander, Barclays Bank, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Dutch Banking Association, European Banking Federation, FS-ISAC, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mastercard, Moody’s, Novo Banco, and Rabobank.

The Objectives and Mission of the Quantum Safe Financial Forum

The QSFF has several key objectives. These include driving a coordinated approach to the transition to PQC in the financial sector, creating a common assessment of the threat applicable across the industry, identifying challenges and best practices, discussing potential solutions for the financial sector, and collaborating with other similar initiatives in support of a global engagement on the topic. The forum also aims to share knowledge and explore mutual learning and training opportunities.

The mission of the QSFF is to share best practices and coordinate actions to ensure a safe transition to PQC. The forum provides a platform where its selected members can collaborate and assist each other through this transition, fostering developments and addressing upcoming threats.

The Quantum Threat to Cryptography

Quantum computing is anticipated to bring benefits to many different areas and will have a significant impact on business and the economy. However, it is also predicted that quantum computing will permanently undermine existing cryptography, thereby impacting the security of data and systems across all sectors and necessitating an urgent response.

Industry experts have recently hypothesized that quantum computers will be able to crack an important part of our current cryptosystems in the 2030s. This quantum threat mainly affects public key cryptography, such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), used for securing digital communications.

Addressing the quantum threat is a complex task, as cryptography is pervasive. It is the base tool for protecting digital data and communications. Moreover, the so-called post-quantum cryptography is still in the process of being standardized.

The Transition to Quantum-Safe Cryptography

Transitioning to quantum-safe is not just about upgrading the current cryptography algorithms but also about a new way to manage cryptography. The transition needs to be a coordinated effort so that we can ensure an effective sector-wide implementation across the financial sector.

Migrating to a quantum-safe approach will be a complex project that requires significant resources and time, as well as collaboration among industry peers, the public sector, and academia. These actors need to come together to scale learning curves and identify opportunities and challenges in advance.

In April 2024, the European Commission published a Recommendation that encourages Member States to develop a comprehensive strategy for the adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography, to ensure a coordinated and synchronized transition among the different Member States and their public sectors.

The Structure of the Quantum-Safe Financial Forum

The QSFF is open to the participation of European companies, public institutions or associations, as long as they belong to or are closely affiliated to the financial services sector. The QSFF is managed by a dedicated steering committee, which includes representatives from a wide range of financial institutions to provide a comprehensive point of view of the sector interests.

EC3 provides a permanent secretariat service to support the work of the QSFF and the Steering Committee. This collaborative approach ensures that the transition to Post Quantum Cryptography is managed effectively, with the best interests of the financial sector at heart.