A major technical disruption affecting Google Cloud’s London region on Tuesday knocked out a wide array of digital services, leaving customers unable to access banking applications, make card payments, or utilize government remote hearing tools.
Google Cloud’s status dashboard indicated that the company experienced service issues at its europe-west2 region, which is based in London. A spokesperson for Google stated that the company was investigating the disruption, which the status dashboard attributed to a “power event” that had since been mitigated. However, cloud services in the London region remained listed as unavailable as of 12:12 p.m. local time.
The technical failure rippled across the financial sector, impacting institutions and financial technology firms. Customers utilizing popular banking and financial services, including Halifax and Revolut, reported widespread login failures, card payment rejections, and an inability to transfer funds. Some impacted companies explicitly pointed to the Google Cloud disruption as the root cause, while others cited an unnamed third-party provider.
In a public statement, Revolut sought to reassure its user base regarding account security. “We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe. We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologize to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused,” the company stated. A person familiar with the matter corroborated that the outage stemmed from Google Cloud. Meanwhile, Halifax posted on social media platform X to acknowledge the disruption, writing, “We’re aware some customers are having issues with our app and online. We’re sorry about this and are working hard to fix it.”
Budgeting application Emma also suffered disruptions starting at approximately 7 a.m. local time. Clarifying the nature of the disruption to concerned users on X, Emma emphasized that the incident was strictly operational rather than malicious, stating, “This is a technical outage, not a security issue.”
The fallout extended beyond financial technology, affecting logistics, web hosting, and the public sector. Tracking data from Downdetector indicated that non-finance companies experienced significant downtime. Delivery service DPD reported via X that its website was impaired, while web-hosting platform SiteGround noted that its UK data center was hit by the cloud failure, prompting its engineers to collaborate directly with Google Cloud personnel on remediation efforts.
The public sector also felt the impact. The United Kingdom’s courts and tribunal service announced on X that it was encountering operational difficulties with its cloud-based video tools utilized for remote court hearings. “We’re working with our technology partners to restore service,” the government service stated.
Individual users voiced frustration across social media platforms, detailing disruptions ranging from canceled appointments abroad to declined payment cards at airports that left travelers temporarily stranded without customer support access. The incident highlights the vulnerabilities inherent in enterprise cloud infrastructure as major technology providers like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft compete aggressively to secure contracts with corporate enterprises, startups, and government bodies.
