Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 11 (ANI): The time has come for Indian payment system providers and network operators to begin moving towards quantum-proofing payment systems, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Shirish Chandra Murmu said on Friday, as he called for early preparation against risks that quantum computing could pose to existing financial security systems.

"The time has therefore come for Indian payment system providers and network operators to begin moving towards quantum-proofing our payment systems," Murmu said while delivering a keynote address at the Global FinTech Fest 2026 in Mumbai.

He said banks, payment operators, fintech companies, technology providers and standard-setters would need to work together as quantum-related risks cannot be addressed by individual institutions alone.

"Banks, payment operators, FinTechs, technology providers and standard-setters will need to move together, because quantum resilience is an ecosystem capability, not an institutional one," he said.

"Quantum computing promises breakthroughs in optimisation and financial modelling. It can also challenge the cryptographic foundations on which today's financial system rests," he noted.

The Deputy Governor, however, noted that the threat was not immediate. He said payment infrastructure has long technology cycles and moving to new security standards could take years.

He also flagged the "harvest now, decrypt later" risk, under which encrypted information collected today could become accessible in the future as computing capabilities advance.

For India, where digital payments operate at a large scale, Murmu said quantum preparedness should be treated as part of the broader cyber-resilience framework.

Murmu said the RBI has constituted an expert committee on a Quantum Secure and Adaptive Financial Ecosystem to prepare the country's financial infrastructure for such risks.

He also referred to Project Leap, an initiative of the BIS Innovation Hub with partner central banks, which replaced traditional digital signatures with post-quantum cryptography in a liquidity transfer experiment.

"Its lesson is about timing: this work takes longer than institutions expect and cannot be done alone," Murmu said.

The call comes as India's digital payment ecosystem continues to operate at significant scale. According to Murmu, UPI processed about 24,162 crore transactions worth around Rs 314 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, accounting for about 85 per cent of India's digital payment transactions by volume.

"We must innovate not only for the future, but for the risks the future creates," Murmu said. (ANI)