NEW YORK — A significant outage affecting multiple Google Cloud services in its London region, identified as `europe-west2`, has triggered widespread digital service disruptions across Europe. The incident, which began around 06:08 GMT (07:08 AM BST) on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, has impacted several prominent banks, fintech companies, delivery services, retailers, and even the UK's National Health Service (NHS).
Google has confirmed that its engineering teams are actively investigating "elevated errors and intermittent network failures" within the affected region. While the technology giant has not yet identified the specific cause of the network failures, some affected companies, including the digital bank Revolut and the budgeting app Emma, have directly attributed their service disruptions to the Google Cloud incident.
The primary impact zone is Google Cloud's `europe-west2` region, located in London. However, the ripple effects are being felt by companies with operations and customer bases spanning various European countries, including Germany's ING Germany and the extensive Europe-wide customer base of Revolut. Google's current incident status indicates that a broad array of its cloud services are experiencing issues. These include critical business tools such as BigQuery, App Engine, Looker, SQL, AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, Cloud Data Fusion, Cloud Filestore, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud Memorystore, Cloud NAT, Cloud Run, Cloud Spanner, Cloud Workstations, Datastream, Google Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Managed Airflow, Managed Service for Apache Kafka, Persistent Disk, and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), among many others. Google has advised customers, where feasible, to attempt migrating their workloads to another available location, such as a different zone or region.
Several European financial institutions are reporting disruptions coinciding with the Google Cloud outage. Revolut, a British digital bank serving over 80 million customers globally, is experiencing a major service disruption. Customers have reported being unable to make card payments, withdraw cash from ATMs, sign into the app, or perform transfers, top-ups, stock trades, or cryptocurrency transactions. Revolut issued an official statement confirming the disruption and assuring customers that "all our customers' money and data are safe." A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Revolut's outage is directly tied to the Google Cloud disruption, and Revolut uses Google Cloud for its services.
In the United Kingdom, Lloyds Bank customers are reporting issues with some online services and the mobile app. Lloyds stated, "We are aware of similar issues affecting other organizations and are monitoring the situation closely." Halifax, another UK bank, acknowledged on X that "some customers are having issues with our app and online." Reports also indicate problems affecting HSBC and Bank of Scotland services. In Germany, ING Germany reported problems logging into its online banking and banking app due to a "technical issue." While Lloyds, Halifax, HSBC, Bank of Scotland, and ING Germany have not explicitly confirmed a direct link to Google Cloud, their outages coincided with the Google Cloud incident, and outage tracking website DownDetector showed spikes mirroring Google Cloud's pattern.
The disruption extends beyond banking. Emma, a UK-based budgeting app, confirmed on X that it is "currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am." Home improvement retailer Screwfix and supermarket chain Asda have reportedly experienced issues. The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is also among the organizations impacted. Property website Rightmove and web hosting provider SiteGround have reported problems. Delivery services Royal Mail, the UK postal service, and DPD have experienced disruptions, with DPD confirming "current connection issues affecting our website." The extensive list of affected Google Cloud services indicates a significant impact on various enterprise applications and infrastructure that rely on these core components.
To understand the widespread impact, it is helpful to clarify what Google Cloud entails. Google Cloud is a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services that provides businesses with a vast array of infrastructure, platform, and serverless computing products. This includes computing power, data storage, networking, analytics, machine learning, and developer tools. Companies leverage Google Cloud to host their applications, store data, and run their operations without the need to build and maintain their own physical data centers.
A cloud-network failure, as described by Google, signifies a disruption in the underlying network infrastructure that connects various components within a cloud provider's data centers or between data centers and the broader internet. Such a failure can lead to "elevated errors and intermittent network failures," preventing services from communicating effectively, making them inaccessible to users, or causing data transfer issues.
The reason one cloud provider's disruption can affect numerous banks and seemingly unrelated businesses lies in the fundamental reliance of modern digital services on cloud infrastructure. This reliance creates what is known as "cloud concentration risk." Businesses often build their entire digital operations on a cloud provider's infrastructure, utilizing its virtual servers, databases, and storage. If this foundational infrastructure fails, all services built upon it can be affected. Many services communicate through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and a network failure can disrupt these critical calls. Cloud providers frequently host authentication systems, meaning if these systems are down, users may be unable to log into banking apps or websites. The Domain Name System (DNS), which translates website names into IP addresses, can also be affected, preventing users from reaching online services. A failure in a major cloud region's network connectivity, like London's `europe-west2`, can create bottlenecks or complete disconnections for any service hosted within or routed through that region. Furthermore, many companies rely on third-party software and services that are themselves hosted on cloud platforms, leading to cascading failures. While some larger organizations implement multi-cloud strategies or build redundancy across different regions, many may not have fully robust failover plans, making them vulnerable. The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), in force since January 2025, aims to address such technology-provider risks for financial firms.
Investigating the causal chain, there are confirmed connections for some affected services. Revolut's service outage was directly related to the Google Cloud disruption, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters. The Emma budgeting app explicitly stated on X, "Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am." For Lloyds Bank, Halifax, HSBC, and Bank of Scotland, the connection is likely, given their simultaneous outages and Lloyds' acknowledgment of "similar issues affecting other organizations." ING Germany's issues are a possible connection, as they reported a "technical issue" at the same time. Other services like Rightmove, Royal Mail, DPD, Screwfix, Asda, and the NHS are also experiencing outages coinciding with the Google Cloud incident, making a connection possible or likely, with DPD confirming "connection issues affecting our website."
There is no evidence of a cyberattack in the available reporting. The Emma budgeting app explicitly stated its outage was "a technical outage, not a security issue." Google's statements refer to "elevated errors and intermittent network failures" and "technical failures" within its infrastructure, suggesting an internal operational or technical problem rather than malicious activity.
The disruption, while localized to Google Cloud's `europe-west2` region, has a widespread impact across Europe. Countries primarily affected include the UK, with reported impacts on services used in Germany and across the continent by companies like Revolut. Numerous major organizations, including multiple banks, fintechs, delivery services, retailers, property websites, and the NHS, are affected. Millions of Revolut customers alone have reportedly been unable to access their accounts or make card payments, with thousands more reporting problems for other banks. The disruption began at 06:08 GMT (07:08 AM BST) on October 20, 2026, and is ongoing. Financial transactions are being delayed or rejected, particularly for Revolut customers unable to make card payments or withdraw cash. However, Revolut has explicitly stated that "all our customers' money and data are safe," indicating that funds are temporarily inaccessible rather than at risk. Emma also confirmed it was a technical outage, not a security issue.
The timeline of events began at 06:08 GMT (07:08 AM BST) on October 20, 2026, when Google Cloud first reported an incident affecting multiple services in its London region. Around 07:00 AM BST, the Emma budgeting app confirmed it was down due to a Google Cloud outage. Throughout the morning of October 20, 2026, Revolut, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Bank of Scotland, ING Germany, Rightmove, Royal Mail, DPD, Screwfix, Asda, and the NHS began reporting service disruptions. At 10:24 AM BST (09:24 GMT), Google Cloud confirmed issues across Europe on its status page, noting "Multiple services are experiencing issues in the europe-west2 region." Google's engineering team continues to investigate the issue, with no confirmed resolution time.
Official responses have been issued by several parties. Google Cloud's service health website and status page confirm the widespread issues, with the company's engineering team investigating and apologizing for the disruption. Revolut has issued official statements confirming a "service disruption affecting multiple services" and reassuring customers about the safety of their funds and data. Lloyds Bank stated it was "aware of similar issues affecting other organizations" and was monitoring the situation. Halifax posted on X, acknowledging customer issues with its app and online services and stating it was "working hard to fix it." Emma explicitly stated its direct link to the Google Cloud outage.
What We Know: A significant Google Cloud outage in its `europe-west2` region began at 06:08 GMT on October 20, 2026, causing widespread service disruptions across Europe. Revolut and Emma have confirmed their outages are directly linked to Google Cloud, and several major UK banks and other services are experiencing likely or possible connections. There is no evidence of a cyberattack, and affected companies state customer funds and data are safe, though services are inaccessible. What We Don't Know: The precise root cause of Google Cloud's network failures remains unconfirmed, as does the exact timeline for full service restoration across all affected platforms. The full scope of the impact on smaller businesses and individual users is also still emerging. What Is Being Restored: While Google's engineering teams are actively investigating and working to resolve the issue, no widespread restoration of services has been officially confirmed as of the latest updates. What Happens Next: Google will conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the network failures. Affected banks and businesses will continue their recovery efforts, which may include implementing or testing failover mechanisms. The incident could prompt further regulatory review, particularly under frameworks like the EU's DORA, and may lead companies to reconsider their cloud redundancy and multi-cloud strategies to mitigate future risks.