A power fault at a Google Cloud data centre left millions of UK customers unable to pay or withdraw cash for much of Tuesday. The case for a second bank in a second country has rarely been clearer.
On the morning of Tuesday, October 20, 2026, a fault in Google's cloud computing operations in London knocked out services that millions of people in the UK rely on to pay for things. Revolut customers could not make card payments, withdraw cash or transfer money. Customers of Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and HSBC reported trouble logging in. The video system that lets defendants and lawyers join court hearings remotely in England and Wales failed for the morning, delaying hearings.
Google blamed what it called a power event in one of the zones of its London cloud region. A cloud region is a cluster of data centres that companies rent computing power from instead of running their own; a zone is one separately powered part of it. Google's status page records problems from 07:08 London time. Services began coming back around 13:00, and Google said they had been restored for most customers by mid afternoon.
The outage tracker Downdetector logged more than 1,500 reports about Revolut shortly after 08:00. Reports also came in for Rightmove, the property portal, the parcel firm DPD, Royal Mail and NHS England. Customers described being unable to pay for parking, reach their money while abroad or complete a property purchase.
Revolut was among the hardest hit. Even by 5pm, its own status page showed only six of its 27 listed services working normally, according to the Guardian. The company said customers' money and data were safe throughout, and later confirmed a full restoration. Lloyds said it understood the root issues had been resolved. HSBC said its services had returned to normal.
The Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial regulator, said it was engaging with Google and the affected firms. "People need to be able to access their money and make payments," a spokesperson said, adding that firms were expected to keep customers informed and make sure no one was left out of pocket. The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority was also reported to be in contact with Google.
The timing is pointed. In July 2026 the UK government designated Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Oracle as critical third parties, putting their services to UK financial firms under the direct oversight of the Bank of England and the FCA. This is the first major test of that regime. Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury committee of MPs, has written to the regulators asking how they responded and how far the impact reached, and wants an initial reply by November 4.
It is tempting to read this as a story about app based banks. It is not. Two of the UK's largest traditional banks were affected too. The deeper point is that much of modern banking now runs on a small number of cloud providers, and customers cannot see which provider, or which data centre, sits behind the card in their pocket. Exactly a year ago, an outage at Amazon's cloud did similar damage.
For someone whose life sits in one country, a morning without a card is an inconvenience. For someone living abroad, travelling, or paying rent, staff or school fees across borders, it can mean a declined hotel bill, a missed payment deadline or no way to reach cash in a country where they have no family to call.
Remember that every account you hold abroad is reported to your country of tax residence under the Common Reporting Standard, and should be declared there as its rules require. A backup account is about resilience, not secrecy.
A backup account is part of every banking plan we build. Through our international banking service we help clients decide which accounts they need and in which countries and currencies, prepare files the way each bank expects, and keep their details consistent so that accounts stay open. We do not open accounts ourselves or hold client money, and every bank makes its own decision. If Tuesday left you without a way to pay, it is worth fixing before the next outage rather than during it.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
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