European financial regulators have launched inquiries into a Google Cloud outage that deprived millions of bank customers across Europe of key financial services for several hours, raising concerns about cloud service resilience and third-party risk management.
- Google Cloud outage caused by a power event in London
- Millions of bank customers across Europe affected
- Regulators assess impact under new critical third-party rules
What happened
On Tuesday, a power event at a third-party facility in Google Cloud's europe-west2 region based in London triggered a disruption that lasted several hours. This outage impacted numerous financial institutions in Europe, with banks like Revolut, Lloyds, and HSBC unable to provide key services including login, card payments, and cash withdrawals to their customers. Revolut reported issues affecting its approximately 13 million UK users during the incident.
Google quickly addressed the disruption and restored services, committing to publish a detailed analysis on their status dashboard. Despite the outage, Revolut confirmed funds and customer data remained secure throughout the incident. Google attributed the problem to infrastructure issues within its network hosting critical European financial clients.
Why it matters
This widespread outage is the first significant test of recently implemented European Union regulations that designate major cloud and technology suppliers as critical third-party providers to the financial sector. These rules aim to bolster resilience and oversight by placing firms like Google Cloud under the joint supervision of financial regulators such as the European Banking Authority (EBA).
Similarly, the UK has established its own regime requiring designated cloud providers to notify regulators of serious incidents and enable coordinated responses. Given banks’ heavy reliance on third-party providers for essential operations, outages like this highlight the systemic risks posed by cloud infrastructure failures and the importance of regulatory vigilance over service continuity.
What to watch next
Regulators, including the EBA in Europe and the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England in the UK, are actively engaging with Google to gather information about the incident and evaluate potential consequences for financial institutions and customers. The UK Treasury Committee has also demanded details regarding the scale, impact, and regulatory response to the disruption.
Moving forward, banks and cloud providers will likely enhance incident response measures and review contractual obligations to mitigate risks from third-party failures. Industry observers will monitor how regulatory frameworks manage accountability and resilience after this high-profile cloud outage, which could influence future policy and operational safeguards across Europe’s financial services ecosystem.