Google Cloud outage disrupts UK banks and services

Google Cloud's europe-west2 region in London failed on Tuesday after a power event at a third-party data centre, according to Google. The failure began around 06:00 UTC (07:00 UK time) and lasted for several hours, disrupting banking apps, courts and public services across the UK. Google said services had been restored and that it would publish an analysis on its status dashboard.

Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC and Halifax were among the banks affected. Revolut said the outage hit multiple services, including logging in, card payments and cash withdrawals. Within two minutes of reports starting around 08:00 UK time, Downdetector had recorded more than 1,458 Revolut outage reports, with 62 percent concerning the app, 22 percent money transfers and 9 percent phone banking. By 09:00 UK time (08:00 UTC), Downdetector had logged 480 reports for Lloyds, with 36 percent citing account access problems, 31 percent online banking and 25 percent the app. Revolut said customer money and data remained safe and that it was reviewing the incident to reduce the impact of future third-party disruptions. Halifax said on X it was aware some customers were experiencing difficulties with its app and online services.

Outside the UK, Revolut users in Japan, Australia and other countries reported being unable to pay for everyday items. One user said she was stranded in a city in Japan and could not pay for anything, while another in Australia said he could not pay for fuel at a petrol station.

Public services were also disrupted. NHS England, Royal Mail and property platform Rightmove experienced problems. The Cloud Video Platform used for remote hearings in England and Wales was down from 10:00 UK time (09:00 UTC), the Criminal Bar Association said, and many lawyers could not proceed with trials and hearings. The UK Courts and Tribunals Service confirmed it was aware of the technical problem. Personal finance app Emma said the outage was related to Google Cloud and was not a cyberattack or security breach.

European and UK regulators are now questioning Google. The European Banking Authority said it has contacted Google Cloud to obtain further information and assess the potential impact on EU financial entities. In the UK, the Treasury Committee has written to the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority seeking details of the response, the scale of disruption and any financial harm. The FCA said it was engaging with Google over the incident. The outage is the first major test of EU rules that designated large technology firms, including cloud providers, as critical third-party providers under direct regulatory oversight. Britain has similar rules for four cloud providers, including Google Cloud, which must report serious outages to the FCA and the Bank of England.