(Bloomberg) -- Bank of Montreal is joining International Business Machines Corp.’s quantum network and building its own team of scientists in a bid to accelerate innovation in areas including climate-risk management and fraud detection.

The Canadian bank will join another 50 financial institutions including Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc in gaining access to IBM’s quantum computer. The technology will be used by a team of quantum specialists BMO is currently building, said Kristin Milchanowski, chief AI and data officer at the bank.

The finance industry is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of quantum computers, which are exponentially more powerful than traditional machines. The technology helps sort large amounts of data and solve complex mathematical problems that would take binary computers days, months and even years.

“We really do believe that quantum advantage is on the horizon,” Milchanowski said in an interview. “We want to prepare ourselves for that competitive advantage moment and have all of the the different portfolio investment algorithms developed and ready to go. That’s mission one.”

BMO, which acquired California’s Bank of the West for about $16 billion in 2023, said it plans to use quantum computing to sharpen its climate predictions, including better understanding of floods, fires and other natural disasters. Quantum technology can also be used in fraud detection and to improve the bank’s portfolios. 

“We can look at satellite data and run what’s called a quantum neural network, and we’re able to evaluate more components of that satellite image to then predict and and have more precision around where that wildfire could be traveling next,” Milchanowski said. “That’s relevant to our insurance sector as well as our banking clients.”

IBM is competing with Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others to develop quantum computers, which rely on so-called qubits and can store data in multiple forms: ones, zeros, both, or something in between. The company has been expanding its presence in Chicago, where BMO has its US headquarters, having recently invested in a quantum campus being championed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

Chicago Hires

Milchanowski said BMO’s quantum team will start small and grow over time. She expects some of the new hires to be based in Chicago, a city that’s already home to one the country’s longest quantum networks and is becoming a hub for the technology.

“The the talent pool is in Chicago,” said Milchanowski, who is an AI associate fellow of the University of Oxford and holds a PhD in decision sciences. “It’s a really competitive environment because there’s not very many of us in the world, so having these epicenters like Chicago, it just really makes sense for us to be there.”

In July, PsiQuantum Corp. a California-based company, said it would build the nation’s first utility-scale quantum computer in Chicago at the state’s quantum and microelectronics park in the city’s South Side. Five months later, IBM announced it would build a national algorithm center on the site.

“It’s not just a science project for us,” said Scott Crowder, vice president of IBM quantum adoption and business development. “It is really about building useful quantum computers. That means we have to have the world’s best scientists and the world’s best researchers to get there.”

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