RBC Names a Director of Quantum and Says It Is Migrating to Post-Quantum Cryptography

The Quantum Insider reported on September 29, 2026 that Royal Bank of Canada has appointed Dr. Elizabeth Iwasawa to the newly created position of Director of Quantum, responsible for the bank's quantum researchers and its quantum strategy. RBC has also set up multiyear collaborations with the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing, through an RBC Quantum Talent Initiative, and with the University of Toronto, focused on PhD fellowships.

On security, the report says RBC is protecting client data through migration to post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution for secure communications. The bank invested in Photonic's funding round in December 2025 and works with Xanadu on workforce training.

Our take

Canada's largest bank has put a named executive and a plan behind quantum, and it says out loud that post-quantum migration is part of that plan. Regional institutions and credit unions hold the same kind of long lived records and connect to the same payment networks, without the same research budget. They do not need a quantum lab to start. They need to know where their encryption is today. You can't fix what you can't see. Check your exposure in two minutes, or start your Discovery Program.