Revolut and Lloyds down: Google Cloud outage hits banks as cards 'declined

At roughly 6 a.m. On Tuesday, a power failure in a London‑based Google Cloud data centre sparked a chain reaction that knocked out banking apps, court‑streaming services and a host of other online platforms across the United Kingdom. The outage left Revolut customers unable to pay, Lloyds and HSBC users stranded from their accounts, and court hearings in England and Wales delayed until the video‑link service recovered.

The disruption began in the Europe‑west2 zone, believed to be London, when a sudden loss of power knocked out a key cluster of servers. Google Cloud said the event was “mitigated” by lunchtime and that services were “recovering” across most workloads. By 3 p.m. The company announced that “most customers” were back online, leaving only a very small number still affected.

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Revolut, which serves millions of UK users, was one of the first firms to report problems. The fintech said it was experiencing a “service disruption affecting multiple services” and confirmed that all customers’ money and data were safe. Users posted on Mirror that their cards were being declined and that they could not log into the app. The bank’s outage was mirrored by Lloyds Banking Group, whose Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands also saw app and online banking issues.

HSBC, Royal Mail, DPD and the property portal Rightmove were among the other services affected. Court‑streaming, which relies on Google’s Cloud Video Platform (CVP), was also down. The HM Courts & Tribunals Service reported that the video link was unavailable, delaying remote hearings across England and Wales. A judge at Southwark Crown Court confirmed that “there had been problems with Google” but that the system was back up shortly after a noon update.

“We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services. We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe.”

Guardian, via Guardian

Google’s own statement, posted on its Mirror update, acknowledged the power event and promised a detailed analysis once its internal investigation finished. The company also urged affected customers to consider migrating workloads to another region if possible, noting that the London site was the sole UK location experiencing disruption.

Regulators have seized the opportunity to scrutinise the sector’s reliance on a handful of hyperscalers. The Financial Conduct Authority confirmed it was in touch with Google and sought further information about the outage. The incident is the first major test for the FCA and the Bank of England, which now have regulatory powers over Google and other cloud providers that supply “critical” services to UK financial firms.

Experts warn that the event underscores the risks inherent in concentrating critical services on a small number of cloud vendors. “Hyperscalers have become too big to not fail. But worse, they’ve become so deeply ingrained into the very fabric of our digital lives that switching away from them seems unimaginable,” said internet infrastructure analyst Michał “rysiek” Woźniak on Aol. He added that the concentration of services on Google, Amazon and Microsoft has made the entire sector vulnerable to single points of failure.

For customers, the immediate impact was tangible. Card‑payments were declined, ATMs refused withdrawals, and people could not transfer funds. Court‑attendees reported that they had to wait for the video link to come back online, while journalists observed hearings resuming only after a noon update from Google.

Businesses are now looking to the aftermath. The NewsCord report noted that banks and other firms are reviewing their contingency plans. Dr Hamza Mutaher, a lecturer in cyber‑security, urged organisations to map out essential customer journeys, test backup regions, and ensure that fallback solutions do not rely on the same infrastructure that failed.

What comes next? Google has pledged to publish a full analysis of the incident once its internal investigation concludes. The FCA and Bank of England are expected to review the event in light of their new regulatory framework, which was established to oversee the critical third‑party suppliers that now underpin the UK’s financial system. Banks are likely to reassess their cloud strategies, potentially diversifying across multiple providers or building additional redundancy within existing arrangements.

For consumers, the lesson is clear: digital banking and court services remain vulnerable to outages at the core infrastructure level. While the immediate impact has largely been resolved, the incident has highlighted the need for robust contingency planning and clearer communication from providers when such events occur.

In the coming days, stakeholders will watch closely as Google releases its analysis and regulators outline any follow‑up actions. The industry will be reminded that the resilience of the financial sector is only as strong as the physical infrastructure that powers it.