Google Cloud Outage Disrupts UK Banks Including Revolut

A Google Cloud outage centered in London disrupted online services at several U.K. banks on Tuesday, leaving customers struggling to reach their accounts and make payments. Lloyds, HSBC, Revolut and Bank of Scotland customers all reported problems, and the effects reached beyond banking.

The cloud outages began just after 2 a.m., or 6:08 a.m. GMT. Google Cloud reported errors and intermittent network failures in its London cloud region, and its engineers started investigating the fault. The company has not yet said what caused the disruption.

The outage left UK customers stranded at supermarkets and petrol stations, a sign of how deeply card payments and banking apps depend on cloud infrastructure. Some businesses outside banking also reported problems, although no one has confirmed whether every incident connects to the Google Cloud failure.

What Google Cloud Has Said So Far

Google Cloud acknowledged the problem early Tuesday and told customers its teams were working on the fault. The company later offered an apology and promised a further update around 8 a.m. eastern time.

“Our engineering team continues to investigate the issue,” Google Cloud said early Tuesday.

Google Cloud reported technical failures affecting multiple services in its London-based europe-west2 region. The company described errors and intermittent network failures there, which suggests the problem came and went rather than shutting services off completely.

“We apologize to all who are affected by the disruption,” Google Cloud said, and promised an update around 8 a.m. eastern time.

The center of the outage sits in London, but its reach can extend further. Apps in other countries may feel the effects if they rely on London-based infrastructure, so the fault is not strictly a British problem.

Banks Report Access and Payment Problems

Customers of Lloyds, HSBC and Bank of Scotland reported trouble accessing banking services and making payments. Revolut, the digital bank, confirmed that the disruption hit its own services. It said it had been working on a fix since it identified the issue that morning.

Revolut told customers that their funds and personal information stayed protected throughout the incident. The company stressed this point in an emailed statement that also apologized for the inconvenience.

“We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services,” Revolut said in an email. “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 apologise to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused.”

That reassurance matters because outages of this kind often leave customers unsure whether their balances or personal details face any risk. Revolut stated plainly that money and data remain safe, even though some services stayed unavailable while engineers worked on the repair.

Wider Fallout Beyond Banking

The problems did not stay inside the financial sector. Users also reported issues at Rightmove, DPD and Screwfix. Nobody has confirmed whether the Google Cloud failure caused all of those incidents, so the full scale of the disruption remains unclear.

There also appear to be outages elsewhere in Europe. It is unclear whether those outages connect to the London failure, and neither Google Cloud nor the affected companies have drawn a link.

The episode shows how much everyday activity now depends on a handful of cloud regions. When a single region such as europe-west2 suffers errors, a shopper at a supermarket checkout or a driver at a petrol pump can feel the effects within hours. Banks, delivery firms and retailers each run their own systems, yet they can share the same underlying infrastructure.

What Customers Can Expect Next

For now, the next concrete milestone is Google Cloud’s promised update around 8 a.m. eastern time. That update should show whether engineers have found the root cause and how quickly services can return to normal. Banks and other affected businesses will likely rely on that information to tell customers when they can expect full access.

Until then, customers of the affected banks may continue to see slow or failing apps and payment problems. Revolut has said it keeps working on a fix, and Google Cloud has said its engineers continue to investigate. Both companies have apologized to the people affected by the disruption.

The outage began on a Tuesday morning, when many people check accounts and make everyday purchases. The coming hours will show how quickly Google Cloud and the banks restore normal service, and whether the wider European problems have any link to the London failure.