The Treasury Department announced on Aug. 24 that it launched a public-private task force to help coordinate the financial sector’s shift to quantum-resistant cybersecurity.
Treasury said in an Aug. 24 press release that the Quantum-Readiness Task Force will bring together government and industry leaders to develop shared priorities for adopting post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and protecting the systems that underpin U.S. finance.
“America must lead in securing the technologies that power our economy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “This Task Force will help ensure our financial system remains strong, secure, and competitive as new technologies reshape the global landscape.”
The group will operate through three workstreams: sector alignment and PQC transition, third-party and vendor readiness, and digital assets and emerging-technology risk.
PQC technologies are designed to protect data and communications against future attacks from quantum computers capable of breaking many of today’s widely used encryption methods.
The announcement of the task force follows President Donald Trump’s June executive order aimed at speeding the federal government’s transition to PQC.
“Quantum computing holds significant promise, but it also presents a serious long-term challenge to the cryptographic tools that underpin the U.S. financial system,” said Luke Pettit, Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions.
Pettit said the task force will “help ensure that the transition to quantum-safe technology is coordinated, risk-based, and operationally resilient.”
The Treasury Department said the task force builds on the G7 Cyber Expert Group roadmap for the transition to post-quantum cryptography released in January. The roadmap points to 2035 as “an overall target date” for PQC migration across governmental and private sector systems.
Under Trump’s recent executive order, agencies are required to transition all high-value assets and high-impact systems to PQC for key establishment by Dec. 31, 2030.
Subsequent guidance from the White House Office of Management and Budget said agencies should then migrate digital signatures in 2031 and fully migrate remaining systems by 2035.