Google Cloud Outage Hits UK Banks, Courts, Revolut

A major Google Cloud outage knocked UK banks, courts, and fintech services offline on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, after a 'power event' at the company's London data centre region, europe-west2. The failure disrupted mobile banking for Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, stalled remote court hearings, and hit delivery firms and the NHS app. Google said services were recovering for most users by late afternoon, but the incident has reignited concerns about cloud concentration risk in critical national infrastructure.

What caused the Google Cloud outage?

According to Computer Weekly, the outage began shortly after 07:00 BST when the europe-west2-b availability zone lost power and backup generators reportedly failed to engage. Peer zones a and c did not fully absorb the load, leading to elevated errors and intermittent network failures across multiple services. Google's status dashboard described the issue as a 'power event' in a smaller zone and said it was mitigated by lunchtime, with partial recovery expected within about 30 minutes. The incident follows a July 2022 cooling failure in the same region and echoes the 2025 AWS outage that disrupted UK services a year earlier.

Which banks and services were affected?

User reports on Downdetector spiked from around 08:00 BST. Revolut was hardest hit, with more than 1,500 complaints and customers unable to make payments, transfer money, or access the app; customer funds and data were safe, a Revolut spokesperson said. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and HSBC confirmed issues with online and mobile banking. HM Courts and Tribunals Service's Cloud Video Platform failed, and the Criminal Bar Association said barristers could not proceed with trials and hearings. Royal Mail, DPD, Rightmove, e-bike service Forest, and the NHS app were also disrupted. The widespread impact shows how deeply digital banking infrastructure depends on shared cloud providers.

Why does one zone failure cause widespread disruption?

Google's europe-west2 is the company's only cloud region in the UK. That means organisations without multi-region resilience had no domestic failover target when the b zone lost power. Single-zone or single-region deployments remain single points of failure, and the concentration risk is magnified because many banks, government services and retailers use the same provider. A Computer Weekly report noted that backup generators reportedly failed to engage, compounding the initial power loss. The incident underscores the case for multi-cloud resilience strategies among regulated firms, and regulators have long warned about third-party concentration risk in financial services.

Regulatory and industry response

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said they were engaging with Google and affected firms, stressing customers must not be left out of pocket. Treasury committee chair Meg Hillier demanded details of the regulators' response and the financial impact by 4 November. Google apologised for the disruption and said it would publish a post-incident analysis after an internal investigation. A cybersecurity expert warned that scammers may exploit the confusion with fake messages. This scrutiny follows broader financial sector operational resilience rules introduced in the UK.

What happens next?

Google has not explained the exact cause of the power event, but said services were restored by Tuesday evening for most users. The Ministry of Justice confirmed its systems were not fully restored by late afternoon. For businesses, the episode is a wake-up call: even major providers can fail, and backup payment options, offline fallbacks and multi-region architectures are essential. Companies may now accelerate cloud migration risk assessment reviews.

FAQ: Google Cloud outage and UK services

What caused the Google Cloud outage on 20 October 2026?

A power event at the europe-west2-b availability zone in London, with backup generators reportedly failing to engage, caused elevated errors and network failures.

Which banks were affected by the Google Cloud outage?

Revolut, Lloyds, HSBC, Halifax and Bank of Scotland reported disruptions to online banking, card payments and transfers.

How long did the Google Cloud outage last?

The incident began shortly after 07:00 BST and was largely mitigated by early afternoon, with most services restored by Tuesday evening.

Were customer funds at risk during the outage?

No. Revolut stressed that customer funds and data were safe, and banks did not report security breaches; the failure was a connectivity issue.

What is being done to prevent future cloud outages?

Google promised a post-incident analysis, while UK regulators are engaging with the company and affected firms; many organisations are expected to review multi-region and backup payment strategies.