Zama forecasts privacy-first, quantum-safe finance

Zama has set out a pair of security and compliance predictions for 2026 that centre on privacy-preserving regulatory oversight in finance and a faster shift towards post-quantum cryptography in vendor and compliance decisions.

The open source cryptography company works on Fully Homomorphic Encryption, a technique that keeps data encrypted while it undergoes computation. Zama also focuses on applications for blockchain and onchain financial activity.

Compliance Tensions

Zama described a growing tension between regulatory demands for transparency and user expectations of confidentiality. It pointed to anti-money laundering checks, know-your-customer rules, and tax reporting as areas where regulators want access to evidence and controls. It also pointed to the use of cryptographic shielding in some systems, which it said has drawn closer scrutiny from oversight bodies.

The company said it expects a shift away from approaches that force organisations to choose between compliance and confidentiality. It forecast wider use of privacy-enhancing technologies in systems that face financial regulation. Zama highlighted Fully Homomorphic Encryption as an approach that can keep underlying data confidential while still allowing checks against rules and policies.

Zama also said it expects adoption by financial institutions of products that apply these methods in "confidential finance". It named Zaïffer as an example. The company positioned this direction as a response to tighter global standards and to the commercial value of keeping institutional datasets private.

Jeremy Bradley, Managing Director, Zama, framed the issue as a matter of proving compliance without broad data exposure.

"The pressure is on to prove compliance, but the public won't tolerate exposure. The only path forward is cryptographic assurance-proving what happened without revealing the sensitive details. This is the foundation of verifiable accountability for the next wave of regulated onchain finance," said Jeremy Bradley, Managing Director, Zama.

Zama's comments reflect a wider debate in digital assets and blockchain-based financial infrastructure about how regulated activity can take place on shared ledgers, while meeting data protection expectations and commercial confidentiality requirements. Firms in the sector have explored a range of techniques, including zero-knowledge proofs and secure enclaves. Zama's focus rests on Fully Homomorphic Encryption, which it describes as a means of running checks and computations without decrypting the underlying data.

The company said regulators have become more focused on the auditability of systems that protect data with cryptography. It expects market demand to build for systems that can demonstrate compliance and produce evidence for authorities. It also expects these systems to avoid disclosing user and institutional information more widely than required.

Quantum Deadline

Zama's second prediction focused on quantum computing risk and the "harvest now, decrypt later" strategy. That strategy assumes an attacker can collect encrypted traffic or stored encrypted information now, then decrypt it in the future if quantum computing makes current public key cryptography less effective.

The company argued that businesses with long-lived sensitive data face a sharper risk profile. It highlighted healthcare records, financial records, and intellectual property as examples of information that can retain value for many years. Zama expects post-quantum cryptography to shift from research programmes into procurement requirements, with buyers assessing quantum resistance as part of vendor selection and compliance checks.

It pointed to the role of governments and standards bodies in defining post-quantum requirements, including work associated with NIST. It also said businesses will treat post-quantum migration as a business continuity requirement, rather than a technical improvement.

Zama also linked Fully Homomorphic Encryption to post-quantum discussions. It described FHE as a lattice-based primitive and said that makes it inherently quantum-resistant. It presented this as a reason it expects FHE to sit in both privacy and quantum security conversations, especially in blockchain contexts that store or process financial data onchain.

Professor Nigel Smart, Chief Academic Officer, Zama, said the shift to quantum resistance changes the status of current public key encryption.

"Data stored today must be secured for tomorrow's threat. Once quantum resistance becomes the standard, traditional public key encryption technologies are instantly legacy. FHE is a go-to technology because it offers both the ability to compute on encrypted data as well as quantum-safety. It's the strategic foundation for any institution serious about long-term digital resilience," said Professor Nigel Smart, Chief Academic Officer, Zama.

Zama's predictions come as companies across finance and technology assess how long they need to protect sensitive datasets, and how rapidly they can update cryptographic infrastructure in software, devices, and cloud environments. Zama said it expects quantum-resistant encryption to become a routine requirement in procurement and compliance reviews as businesses plan for longer-term data integrity and confidentiality.