One Revolut buyer wrote that their 71-year-old mom had waited an hour at a grocery store checkout on Tuesday as a result of her card wouldn’t work, in keeping with a put up Cybernews quoted. Revolut blamed a Google Cloud outage, which Google traced to an influence occasion in a single zone of its London area. Google now says it has mitigated the issue for many clients, but Reuters reported that solely six of the 27 companies on Revolut’s UK standing web page have been working at 17:00 GMT.
A Energy Occasion in One Zone, Errors Throughout the Area
Google’s standing web page logged the primary issues at 06:08 UTC on 20 October, which was 07:08 in London. The preliminary discover described “elevated errors and intermittent community failures” within the europe-west2 area. Google later named the trigger: “An influence occasion brought on an outage inside europe-west2-b zone,” one in every of three zones in its London area. Affected companies included Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, App Engine and Cloud Filestore.
Restoration got here in phases. Google stated the ability occasion was mitigated and that it was prioritizing present workloads, whereas warning that clients won’t but have the ability to create new workloads. It instructed clients emigrate affected workloads to a different zone or area “if possible.” By 14:03 UTC, in keeping with The Register, Google stated the difficulty was mitigated for many clients and {that a} very small quantity remained affected. It promised an evaluation as soon as its inner investigation ends, and had given no element on what brought on the ability occasion itself.
Revolut Confirmed the Hyperlink, the Banks Have Not
Revolut tied its disruption to Google in its personal phrases: “On account of a latest Google Cloud outage, clients could have skilled momentary service disruption on the Revolut app at present.” Its standing web page flagged card funds, transfers, ATM withdrawals, foreign money change and inventory buying and selling. Euronews reported customers hit within the UK, Eire, France, Spain and Japan. Revolut additionally stated clients’ cash and information have been protected.
Lloyds, Halifax, Financial institution of Scotland, HSBC and RBS all appeared in outage reviews, however the proof for a Google hyperlink is thinner. A Lloyds spokesperson instructed The Wall Road Journal that the financial institution was conscious of comparable points affecting different organizations, and the Journal reported that its app stayed accessible whereas some internet companies had issues. Bloomberg reported issues at HSBC and RBS, and neither financial institution responded to its inquiries.
The courts provide a 3rd case. The Felony Bar Affiliation stated the Cloud Video Platform, which courts use for distant hearings, had been down throughout England and Wales since 10 a.m. UK time, and that many barristers couldn’t proceed with trials and hearings. In Llanelli, courtroom information gave “CVP DOWN NATIONALLY” as the rationale two hearings have been adjourned, Herald.Wales reported. The Ministry of Justice stated by late afternoon that courtroom methods have been nonetheless not totally restored, in keeping with Pc Weekly. No assertion reported to date exhibits HM Courts and Tribunals Service tying the failure to Google Cloud, in order that hyperlink rests on timing.
Mitigated Is the Vendor’s Phrase
Revolut’s restoration ran effectively previous Google’s mitigation. Reuters reported that at 17:00 GMT solely six of Revolut’s 27 listed companies have been working, assist chat and inner transfers amongst them, whereas card funds, ATM withdrawals, foreign money change and inventory buying and selling have been nonetheless disrupted. That was practically three hours after Google’s 14:03 UTC replace and virtually 11 hours after the primary error. Revolut stated that night that the difficulty was fastened and companies have been restored. One studying, according to Google’s personal warning about creating new workloads, is {that a} buyer’s restoration is dependent upon rebuild work that begins solely after the seller stabilizes the zone. Nothing within the reporting to date confirms that, so it stays an inference.
Google’s account has a defensible core: the basis trigger sat in one in every of three zones, and by Google’s telling most clients have been again by about 3 p.m. London time. Its wording did shift, although. The primary discover described errors throughout the area, whereas the confirmed trigger was one zone.
Zones exist to include failures like this one, so the open query is why a single-zone energy occasion reached so many companies and clients. London has raised that query earlier than. In July 2022, a heatwave cooling failure brought on an outage of 18 hours and 23 minutes in europe-west2-a, and Google’s incident report stated it had inadvertently modified site visitors routing for inner companies to keep away from all three zones within the area, The Register reported. Whether or not Tuesday adopted the identical sample is just not but recognized.
London Is Google’s Solely UK Area
Google’s revealed location lists present London (europe-west2) as its solely UK area. A agency can unfold UK workloads throughout the three London zones, nevertheless it can not unfold them throughout UK areas. Google’s recommendation to maneuver workloads elsewhere “if possible” subsequently factors these companies towards a area in a foreign country. Whether or not that’s permitted is dependent upon every agency’s information residency and regulatory obligations, which a standing web page can not settle.
The Oversight Regime Is Three Months Previous
On 13 July, HM Treasury’s designation of 4 suppliers took impact: Google Cloud EMEA Restricted, Microsoft Eire Operations Restricted, Amazon Internet Companies EMEA SARL and Oracle Company UK Restricted. Beneath the UK’s vital third events regime, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Monetary Conduct Authority and the Financial institution of England could make guidelines for the companies these suppliers provide to regulated companies, demand info and, in regulation agency Sullivan & Cromwell’s abstract, “direct a CTP to take sure actions or to stop an exercise.” The EU moved first: in November 2025, the European Supervisory Authorities named 19 suppliers, Google Cloud’s European arms amongst them, as vital beneath the Digital Operational Resilience Act, FStech reported.
The UK timetable is gradual. A delegated supplier owes an preliminary self-assessment inside three months, a mark that arrived roughly every week earlier than the outage. Mapping, first-round state of affairs testing and an incident administration playbook train are due inside 12 months. Designation additionally “doesn’t take away the accountability of regulated companies” for their very own third-party threat, Sullivan & Cromwell notes.
Scrutiny arrived the identical day. The Treasury Committee revealed a letter on 20 October from its chair, Dame Meg Hillier, to the Governor of the Financial institution of England and the chief government of the FCA, asking how they may use their powers in response to the incident. An FCA spokesman instructed The Telegraph that the regulator was “conscious of an incident affecting companies offered by Google” and was participating with Google and affected companies. The Financial institution of England and the PRA declined to remark. The date additionally echoes final yr: twelve months earlier to the day, a 14-hour AWS outage in US-East-1 disrupted UK companies together with Lloyds and HMRC, Pc Weekly reported.
Vendor Standing Is Not Buyer Restoration
The implication is {that a} hyperscaler’s standing web page measures the hyperscaler’s restoration. A financial institution or a funds app has to measure the second its personal clients can transact once more, and Tuesday’s timeline suggests the 2 can sit hours aside. Corporations that haven’t rehearsed dropping a zone, and timed the restoration from the client’s facet, will study that quantity throughout an incident as an alternative.
Two paperwork ought to settle most of what stays open. Google’s promised evaluation ought to clarify why a single-zone energy occasion produced errors throughout the area, and the regulators’ reply to the Treasury Committee ought to present what the brand new powers permit in observe. Till then, Revolut’s timeline exhibits how lengthy “mitigated” can take to achieve a buyer.
One Revolut buyer wrote that their 71-year-old mom had waited an hour at a grocery store checkout on Tuesday as a result of her card wouldn’t work, in keeping with a put up Cybernews quoted. Revolut blamed a Google Cloud outage, which Google traced to an influence occasion in a single zone of its London area. Google now says it has mitigated the issue for many clients, but Reuters reported that solely six of the 27 companies on Revolut’s UK standing web page have been working at 17:00 GMT.
A Energy Occasion in One Zone, Errors Throughout the Area
Google’s standing web page logged the primary issues at 06:08 UTC on 20 October, which was 07:08 in London. The preliminary discover described “elevated errors and intermittent community failures” within the europe-west2 area. Google later named the trigger: “An influence occasion brought on an outage inside europe-west2-b zone,” one in every of three zones in its London area. Affected companies included Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, App Engine and Cloud Filestore.
Restoration got here in phases. Google stated the ability occasion was mitigated and that it was prioritizing present workloads, whereas warning that clients won’t but have the ability to create new workloads. It instructed clients emigrate affected workloads to a different zone or area “if possible.” By 14:03 UTC, in keeping with The Register, Google stated the difficulty was mitigated for many clients and {that a} very small quantity remained affected. It promised an evaluation as soon as its inner investigation ends, and had given no element on what brought on the ability occasion itself.
Revolut Confirmed the Hyperlink, the Banks Have Not
Revolut tied its disruption to Google in its personal phrases: “On account of a latest Google Cloud outage, clients could have skilled momentary service disruption on the Revolut app at present.” Its standing web page flagged card funds, transfers, ATM withdrawals, foreign money change and inventory buying and selling. Euronews reported customers hit within the UK, Eire, France, Spain and Japan. Revolut additionally stated clients’ cash and information have been protected.
Lloyds, Halifax, Financial institution of Scotland, HSBC and RBS all appeared in outage reviews, however the proof for a Google hyperlink is thinner. A Lloyds spokesperson instructed The Wall Road Journal that the financial institution was conscious of comparable points affecting different organizations, and the Journal reported that its app stayed accessible whereas some internet companies had issues. Bloomberg reported issues at HSBC and RBS, and neither financial institution responded to its inquiries.
The courts provide a 3rd case. The Felony Bar Affiliation stated the Cloud Video Platform, which courts use for distant hearings, had been down throughout England and Wales since 10 a.m. UK time, and that many barristers couldn’t proceed with trials and hearings. In Llanelli, courtroom information gave “CVP DOWN NATIONALLY” as the rationale two hearings have been adjourned, Herald.Wales reported. The Ministry of Justice stated by late afternoon that courtroom methods have been nonetheless not totally restored, in keeping with Pc Weekly. No assertion reported to date exhibits HM Courts and Tribunals Service tying the failure to Google Cloud, in order that hyperlink rests on timing.
Mitigated Is the Vendor’s Phrase
Revolut’s restoration ran effectively previous Google’s mitigation. Reuters reported that at 17:00 GMT solely six of Revolut’s 27 listed companies have been working, assist chat and inner transfers amongst them, whereas card funds, ATM withdrawals, foreign money change and inventory buying and selling have been nonetheless disrupted. That was practically three hours after Google’s 14:03 UTC replace and virtually 11 hours after the primary error. Revolut stated that night that the difficulty was fastened and companies have been restored. One studying, according to Google’s personal warning about creating new workloads, is {that a} buyer’s restoration is dependent upon rebuild work that begins solely after the seller stabilizes the zone. Nothing within the reporting to date confirms that, so it stays an inference.
Google’s account has a defensible core: the basis trigger sat in one in every of three zones, and by Google’s telling most clients have been again by about 3 p.m. London time. Its wording did shift, although. The primary discover described errors throughout the area, whereas the confirmed trigger was one zone.
Zones exist to include failures like this one, so the open query is why a single-zone energy occasion reached so many companies and clients. London has raised that query earlier than. In July 2022, a heatwave cooling failure brought on an outage of 18 hours and 23 minutes in europe-west2-a, and Google’s incident report stated it had inadvertently modified site visitors routing for inner companies to keep away from all three zones within the area, The Register reported. Whether or not Tuesday adopted the identical sample is just not but recognized.
London Is Google’s Solely UK Area
Google’s revealed location lists present London (europe-west2) as its solely UK area. A agency can unfold UK workloads throughout the three London zones, nevertheless it can not unfold them throughout UK areas. Google’s recommendation to maneuver workloads elsewhere “if possible” subsequently factors these companies towards a area in a foreign country. Whether or not that’s permitted is dependent upon every agency’s information residency and regulatory obligations, which a standing web page can not settle.
The Oversight Regime Is Three Months Previous
On 13 July, HM Treasury’s designation of 4 suppliers took impact: Google Cloud EMEA Restricted, Microsoft Eire Operations Restricted, Amazon Internet Companies EMEA SARL and Oracle Company UK Restricted. Beneath the UK’s vital third events regime, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Monetary Conduct Authority and the Financial institution of England could make guidelines for the companies these suppliers provide to regulated companies, demand info and, in regulation agency Sullivan & Cromwell’s abstract, “direct a CTP to take sure actions or to stop an exercise.” The EU moved first: in November 2025, the European Supervisory Authorities named 19 suppliers, Google Cloud’s European arms amongst them, as vital beneath the Digital Operational Resilience Act, FStech reported.
The UK timetable is gradual. A delegated supplier owes an preliminary self-assessment inside three months, a mark that arrived roughly every week earlier than the outage. Mapping, first-round state of affairs testing and an incident administration playbook train are due inside 12 months. Designation additionally “doesn’t take away the accountability of regulated companies” for their very own third-party threat, Sullivan & Cromwell notes.
Scrutiny arrived the identical day. The Treasury Committee revealed a letter on 20 October from its chair, Dame Meg Hillier, to the Governor of the Financial institution of England and the chief government of the FCA, asking how they may use their powers in response to the incident. An FCA spokesman instructed The Telegraph that the regulator was “conscious of an incident affecting companies offered by Google” and was participating with Google and affected companies. The Financial institution of England and the PRA declined to remark. The date additionally echoes final yr: twelve months earlier to the day, a 14-hour AWS outage in US-East-1 disrupted UK companies together with Lloyds and HMRC, Pc Weekly reported.
Vendor Standing Is Not Buyer Restoration
The implication is {that a} hyperscaler’s standing web page measures the hyperscaler’s restoration. A financial institution or a funds app has to measure the second its personal clients can transact once more, and Tuesday’s timeline suggests the 2 can sit hours aside. Corporations that haven’t rehearsed dropping a zone, and timed the restoration from the client’s facet, will study that quantity throughout an incident as an alternative.
Two paperwork ought to settle most of what stays open. Google’s promised evaluation ought to clarify why a single-zone energy occasion produced errors throughout the area, and the regulators’ reply to the Treasury Committee ought to present what the brand new powers permit in observe. Till then, Revolut’s timeline exhibits how lengthy “mitigated” can take to achieve a buyer.
