Colin Bell, the former chief executive of HSBC, has been appointed by Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) to its board of directors.

The organisation said that the appointment reflects the role quantum computing is set to play in transforming global finance and strengthening resilience across sectors such as security and defence.

OQC is a quantum computing solutions company which was spun out from the University of Oxford.

Bell is currently a non-executive director at Serendipity Capital and previously worked at HSBC for over eight years holding a number of roles including group chief compliance officer and group head of financial crime risk. He also held senior positions at UBS over a period of six years.

Prior to entering financial services, Bell served for 16 years in the British Army where he held a range of command and staff roles, including operational tours in Iraq and Northern Ireland.
He also held appointments with the UK Ministry of Defence and NATO, contributing to national security, defence strategy, and international coordination.

OQC said Bell brings deep expertise in global banking, compliance, and financial crime risk and will strengthen the company’s focus on quantum applications in financial services.

“Colin’s appointment strengthens OQC’s leadership as we deliver on a clear strategy: unlocking quantum capabilities for sectors vital to national and economic security,” said Gerald Mullally, chief executive at OQC. “Quantum is here now—and Colin’s expertise in global finance, defence, and risk will be pivotal as we accelerate commercial adoption and extend our global reach.”

OQC said that quantum computing could provide transformative opportunities for the financial sector as early as 2028, enabling faster, more effective detection of anomalies in trading patterns, fraud, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities across networks and data infrastructure.

In June, OQC announced research that it claims could accelerate the development of commercially viable quantum computers.

The company stated at the time that the research addresses the "massive" hardware requirements that have hindered progress in practical quantum computing applications.
Quantum computers rely on qubits as their fundamental computing units but these qubits are currently prone to errors.

While existing quantum processors can outperform classical computers in specific tasks, their high error rates restrict broader practical applications.

To build reliable quantum computers capable of executing highly complex operations, OQC explained that the industry has assumed the need for machines with thousands of physical qubits.

These would enable the creation of a smaller number of error-corrected logical qubits, which are essential for stable computation.

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