Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank has a strong global footprint with over 8,900 employees in key regions including Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. As the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole Group, Crédit Agricole CIB offers its large corporate and institutional clients a range of products and services in capital markets activities, investment banking, structured finance, commercial banking and international trade, most of which demand significant computing power to manage and analyse substantial financial data effectively.
Crédit Agricole CIB faces demanding computational needs in risk management and capital markets, where precise and fast calculations of risk metrics and pricing complex products are crucial. Regulatory mandates require extensive simulations for assessing extreme economic impacts, vital for capital requirements. In capital markets, accurate pricing is essential to stay competitive. These challenges drive the bank’s exploration of advanced technologies like quantum computing to enhance efficiency and maintain its competitive edge.
Ali El Hamidi, deputy head of the Capital Market Funding department at Crédit Agricole CIB, is an early advocate for advanced computing solutions in financial services. His engineering and computer science background, combined with financial expertise, uniquely positioned him to integrate cutting-edge technology with financial operations. Driven by the need for better computing solutions, Ali established a Quantum Group from various departments like R&D, quantitative engineering, and IT, motivated to develop their quantum technology skills alongside their regular duties.
Complex calculations require powerful computers
His team’s journey into quantum computing began in 2019 with a strategic evaluation of this nascent technology’s potential impact on financial markets and institutions. The team dedicated significant time to understanding the quantum computing ecosystem, including hardware and software developments, as well as the academic landscape offering the requisite skills for leveraging this technology. This preparatory phase was crucial for grasping the fundamental shifts that quantum computing could bring to banking computational challenges.
The decision to explore quantum computing was driven by its advanced capabilities and the high stakes of ignoring transformative technology. Ali’s team highlighted the risk of severe disruption, similar to the “Kodak moment,” where failure to adapt could obliterate market positions. This risk was too great to ignore, especially with potential impacts on the bank’s competitiveness. This led to the strategic partnership with Pasqal in 2021, a significant step towards integrating quantum computing into some of relevant their financial practices.
Embarking on the Quantum journey with Pasqal
The partnership between Crédit Agricole CIB and Pasqal began in early 2021, focusing on leveraging quantum computing to address financial sector challenges. A key project involved working with Pasqal and Multiverse to experiment with quantum computing’s potential in predicting credit rating downgrades 6 to 15 months in advance, aiming to assess its capability to solve real-world financial problems.
This experiment was crucial as it tackled a practical finance industry challenge. For the subject chosen, traditional computing provides satisfactory results, it often fell short in complex scenarios. The project aimed at exploring whether quantum computing could provide useful results for a real world problem with existing quantum technology. The partnership also aimed to evaluate how quantum computing performance compares with classical computing and how it scales with increased qubits, offering insights into its practical application in finance.
The partnership between Crédit Agricole CIB and Pasqal reached a significant milestone in December 2022 with the publication of a research paper initially released on arXiv and later accepted by the American Physical Society—an achievement that underscored the success of the partnership. The recognition marks an important step in their collaborative journey, highlighting the potential for future advancements and continued exploration in the field.
Extending Quantum insights for future financial innovations
Collaboration with Pasqal was facilitated by regular workshops and meetings, particularly with Loïc Henriet, Co-CEO of Pasqal, and his team. These sessions, often held at Pasqal’s premises, combined theoretical learning with practical problem-solving, giving Crédit Agricole CIB’s team hands-on experience. This strategic development of internal expertise allowed Crédit Agricole CIB to explore quantum computing sustainably, securing ongoing leadership investment due to the long-term ROI in advanced technologies.
Looking ahead, Ali envisions quantum computing revolutionising not only Crédit Agricole CIB but the broader financial industry. A key takeaway from Crédit Agricole CIB’s project with Pasqal is the promise quantum computing holds for solving optimisation problems—a common challenge across sectors. Quantum solutions could greatly enhance efficiency in operations like optimising logistics in container shipping or improving telecommunications network setups. Crédit Agricole CIB’s experience suggests Pasqal’s analog quantum computers are better-suited for handling these complex problems more effectively than traditional methods.
Crédit Agricole CIB’s pioneering venture into quantum computing with Pasqal demonstrates a proactive embrace of emerging technologies. By validating quantum computing’s efficacy in real-world applications, Crédit Agricole CIB leads financial innovation. The successful collaboration with Pasqal enhances Crédit Agricole CIB’s operations and sets the stage for ongoing advancements that could redefine industry standards. As the bank prepares for future projects, its focus on strategic, ROI-driven initiatives promises to catalyse further transformations in the financial landscape, ushering in a new era of quantum-enhanced optimisation.
