Convergence of AI, Blockchain and Quantum Computing in Financial Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance

Abstract

Financial institutions now face three pressures that do not pull in the same direction. Risk detection has to work at microsecond timescales. Compliance rules demand verifiable provenance for every decision that gets made. And the optimisation problems underlying modern portfolio construction and derivative pricing are growing faster than classical computing can keep up with. Most of the existing scholarship treats artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing as three separate technological trajectories, each studied for the incremental improvement it promises in the problem it addresses. This study argues that the more consequential transformation lies in their convergence, not in their individual adoption. The literature has not yet articulated an integrated architecture that assigns complementary roles to these three technologies within a single risk-and-compliance stack, and that is the gap the paper addresses. Drawing on recent work in financial economics, cryptography, and quantum information science, the paper proposes the ABQ Financial Risk Architecture, which organises three layers: an AI-driven Detection Layer, a blockchain-anchored Trust and Audit Layer, and a quantum-enabled Optimisation Layer. A testable proposition follows. Institutions that integrate all three layers should achieve materially better risk-adjusted compliance outcomes than institutions deploying any subset on its own, with the gap widening as the underlying problems grow more complex. The paper then examines economic implications for developed markets, regulators, and emerging economies, with particular attention to India's National Quantum Mission and the Reserve Bank of India's evolving regulatory posture. Contributions include the architectural conceptualisation itself, three analytical figures depicting layer structure and information flows, a comparative mapping of technology roles, and a research agenda for validating convergence effects empirically. The analysis suggests that real leapfrog opportunities exist for jurisdictions without deeply entrenched legacy systems, though three constraints will bind near-term deployment: quantum hardware immaturity, regulatory asymmetry across jurisdictions, and unsolved interoperability across the three technology domains.