EU Banking Watchdog Seeks Answers From Google After Cloud Outage Hit Banks

The European Banking Authority is seeking information from Google Cloud after an outage disrupted banking services, extending scrutiny beyond the restoration of the affected systems. The EBA told Reuters it wants to understand the incident’s implications and potential impact on financial institutions in the European Union.

Google attributed the October 20 disruption to a power event at a third-party facility in its London-based europe-west2 region. It says services have been restored and that a public analysis will follow. The regulatory questions are a new development, separate from the earlier recovery announcement.

Oversight does not remove banks’ obligations

The EBA said designation as a critical third-party provider creates an EU-level oversight framework, but does not transfer incident-management responsibility away from the supplier or release financial institutions from their own obligations.

That distinction matters when several banks depend on the same technology platform. A shared supplier can spread operational disruption across otherwise separate institutions, while each bank remains responsible for the service delivered to its customers.

UK MPs ask how regulatory powers will be used

Britain’s Treasury Committee has also published a letter to the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority seeking answers about the outage and regulators’ response. The committee’s announcement says Google Cloud EMEA was among four providers designated under the UK critical third-party regime in July.

Reuters reported that the FCA was engaging with Google. Revolut said customer funds and data remained safe and that it was reviewing the incident to reduce the effect of future third-party failures.

Requests for information and parliamentary questions are not findings that Google broke the rules, nor announcements of a fine. The immediate issue is how the oversight frameworks will assess the incident, its consequences and the resilience measures that follow.

Sources

• Reuters: EBA and FCA response to the outage
• UK Treasury Committee: published letter and oversight background