UK financial regulators are seeking answers from Google following a cloud computing outage that disrupted banking services across Europe, raising fresh concerns about the risks of relying on a small number of major technology providers.

The disruption, reported on 20 October, affected services used by financial institutions including Lloyds, HSBC and Revolut. Customers experienced problems with functions such as logging in, making card payments and withdrawing cash.

Google attributed the several-hour outage to a power-related incident at a third-party facility supporting its London-based European cloud region.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority is engaging with Google, while Parliament’s Treasury Committee has requested information from the Bank of England and the FCA about the disruption and its potential impact on customers.

European regulators are also examining the incident as authorities assess whether existing rules adequately address the risks posed by technology failures at critical service providers.

The outage highlights a growing challenge for the financial sector: banks remain responsible for maintaining customer services even when they depend on external cloud infrastructure.