Google says 'most' customers should be back online after cloud outage hit UK finance apps

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@ 20/10/2026

Alice Tecotzky

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Hugh Langley

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Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian — Google's cloud division competes with Amazon and Microsoft for enterprise customers.
Bloomberg/Getty Images

Google said it had largely resolved a cloud outage that appeared to knock out a number of online banking services.

The company said in an update at around 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday that the problem had been mitigated for the most part, with "a very small number" of customers still experiencing issues.

Google had said the outage had been caused by a "power event" at its europe-west2-b zone, which is based in London.

A handful of banking apps and services, including Halifax and Revolut, reported issues on Tuesday that coincided with Google Cloud's disruptions. Some companies said that the Google Cloud outage was the cause, while others attributed it to an unnamed third-party provider.

Users of some affected banking apps said in social media posts early Tuesday that they couldn't make card payments, log in to the app, or transfer money.

"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," Revolut said in a statement earlier in the day. The outage was due to Google Cloud, a person familiar with the matter said.

"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," Halifax posted on X.

Emma, a popular UK budgeting app, also reported outages on Tuesday. "Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7 a.m. This is a technical outage, not a security issue," the company said on X.

Some took to X to share how the outage was disrupting their lives. One person said they'd had to cancel their beauty appointments in Japan, and another said their card was declined at the airport and they couldn't reach the support team.

Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am. This is a technical outage, not a security issue. We're monitoring closely and will update here as soon as the app is back. Sorry for the disruption 🙏
— Emma (@emma_finance) October 20, 2026

The outage appears to have affected non-finance companies, too, according to Downdetector, a site that tracks online service disruptions.

Earlier on Tuesday, an X account for DPD, a delivery service, said in a post that its website was affected, and the web-hosting platform SiteGround said the outage has hit its UK data center. SiteGround said in its post that its engineers were working with Google Cloud engineers to address the issue.

The UK's courts and tribunal service said that it was experiencing issues with its cloud-based video tools for remote hearings on Tuesday. "We're working with our technology partners to restore service," an account for the government service wrote in an X post.

The Google Cloud outage comes as the tech giant has competed with Amazon and Microsoft to win business from enterprises, startups, and governments, particularly amid the AI boom. Reliability is a big promise built into these deals, as outages can have costly consequences for customers.

Google is not alone in being affected by outages, though: Amazon, Microsoft, and others have suffered downtime this year.

gshc2020.com

Google says 'most' customers should be back online after cloud outage hit UK finance apps

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