London power event triggers global banking outage, impacting Revolut and UK institutions

Key points

• Google Cloud identified a 'power event' in its europe-west2-b zone in London as the root cause of the outage.
• The disruption began shortly after 7 a.m. local time and affected multiple services, including banking apps and government video tools.
• Revolut, the UK's most valuable startup, reported that its card payments, ATM withdrawals, and currency exchange services were partially unavailable.
• Google stated that the problem was mitigated for most customers by 10 a.m. ET, with only a 'very small number' still facing issues.
• The incident affected users in the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, and Japan, causing significant frustration among millions of customers.

Background

This incident follows a pattern of cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities seen in 2026, including a September power outage in Atlanta that left 50,000 customers without electricity. While the current event is a power failure, it underscores the broader risks associated with centralized digital infrastructure, similar to the server errors that led to Nintendo's mass bans in September. The reliance on a few major cloud providers for critical services has become a growing concern for global economies.

How outlets are covering it

Business Insider and CNN both confirmed that the outage was caused by a power event at Google Cloud's London data center, with Business Insider noting that some companies attributed the issue to an unnamed third-party provider. Euronews emphasized the global scale of the disruption, highlighting that Revolut, Europe's most valuable startup, was affected across multiple countries. All three sources agreed that Google had largely resolved the issue by mid-morning, though they differed in their emphasis on the broader implications for cloud dependency and financial stability.

Why it matters

The outage underscores the critical role of cloud infrastructure in modern financial systems and the potential for widespread disruption when a single provider experiences a failure. It highlights the need for greater resilience and diversification in cloud services to prevent similar incidents from impacting millions of users and businesses globally.

What to watch

Google is expected to provide further updates on the root cause of the power event and any measures to prevent future outages. Affected companies, including Revolut and UK banks, will likely review their cloud infrastructure dependencies and implement additional safeguards to ensure service continuity. The incident may also prompt regulatory discussions on the reliability of cloud providers for critical services.