# Google Cloud Outage Disrupts European Banking, Affecting Millions

> A Google Cloud service disruption originating from its London data center on October 20, 2026, led to millions of Revolut customers being unable to access banking services.

By PrimaryBrief newsroom · Published 2026-10-20T11:03:45.487641Z
Canonical: https://primarybrief.com/article/google-cloud-outage-disrupts-european-banking-affecting-millions-0ce7f2d0

On October 20, 2026, a Google Cloud service disruption originating from its London data center began around 7 a.m. local time, leading to millions of Revolut customers being unable to access banking services [1][5]. This widespread cloud failure impacted critical digital services across Europe, causing significant operational interruptions for major banking institutions and their customers [2][3][4].

## Records Show Widespread Impact
Google, the technology giant, officially reported a "service disruption" from its London data center [2][6]. The company's status page confirmed problems in its "europe-west2" region, identified as London, starting at 06:08 GMT (7 a.m. London time) [6][7][9][10][11]. Multiple Google Cloud services experienced "elevated errors and intermittent network failures" [9][11]. Affected services included Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Storage, among others [10][11][12].

Fintech company Revolut reported a "massive outage" disrupting the majority of its services globally on the same day [4]. Millions of Revolut customers were unable to use their banking application or associated cards [5]. Specific functionalities impacted included the ability to sign in, make card payments, perform cash withdrawals, and initiate transfers [5][6][8]. Other prominent financial entities, such as Lloyds, also confirmed disruptions to their operations and customer services due to the Google Cloud issues [3][6][9][13]. ING Germany also reported problems logging into online banking and its banking app [7][8].

## Timeline of Disruption
The service issues commenced around 7 a.m. London time on October 20, 2026 [1][7]. Google's service status page first reported the incident impacting its europe-west2 region [6][7][11]. The disruption quickly escalated, leading to widespread reports of service unavailability from various companies and their customers across Europe throughout the morning [2][3][4][5][9][10].

## Financial Sector Grapples with Outage
The pervasive nature of the Google Cloud failure caused numerous banks and their respective websites across Europe to go offline or operate with significantly degraded functionality [2][3][9]. Revolut, a UK banking company, assured customers that their funds and data remained secure despite the extensive operational interruptions [5][6][8][9]. Revolut stated it was "working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning" [6].

## What Google and Affected Companies Have Said
Google acknowledged the disruption, stating on its service status page that its engineering team was investigating the issue [6][8][9][11]. The company apologized to all affected by the disruption [6][10][11]. Google also advised affected clients to migrate their online workloads to other available server locations to avoid the broken London servers [7][10]. Revolut's spokesperson confirmed, "We can confirm that all our customers' money and data are safe" [6][8][9]. Lloyds indicated that customers could log into its app normally but noted issues with some online services and was monitoring the situation [6].

## What We Could Not Confirm
The precise cause of the outage was not immediately clear at the time of initial reports [1][2][9]. The full economic ramifications and the ultimate duration of the disruption were still being assessed [4].

## Evidence cited
1. Google Reports Cloud Disruptions in Europe Region (www.nytimes.com) — https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/technology/google-cloud-down-outage-europe.html
2. Breaking: Banks, websites offline as Google Cloud services fail across Europe (www.abc.net.au) — https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-20/google-cloud-failure-europe-banks/107290238
3. Google Cloud Outage Hits U.K. Banks (www.wsj.com) — https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/revolut-hit-by-widespread-outage-affecting-payments-transfers-withdrawals-5971bf0a?mod=rss_markets_main
4. Revolut outage disrupts online banking operations worldwide (www.bleepingcomputer.com) — https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/revolut-outage-disrupts-online-banking-operations-worldwide/
5. Millions unable to use Revolut app or cards as company suffers ‘service disruption’ (www.theguardian.com) — https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/oct/20/revolut-down-app-cards-service-disruption
6. Google Cloud outage hits London region as Revolut also goes down (morningstar.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQFBw_GSBcg3-uZiRGUocDTuu2X-InRAhWRuzTQLXLhCyB-43n0M8M5_5WVAcuaCYt1mZxGXDkL3phoxAGWeh_KBt6B7526l9JUAAuHqbxxZR18qyx-5X4P_jRamcg1_spnPN0JWrzO8ncoWLedCA79UgCHKmsCUyRJB7j1hCMxqYkJS37_1y7oVhs0S7ff75L3OMx-_TgGo7TLOqQ==
7. Google Cloud Outage in London Disrupts Banking Services at Revolut and ING Germany 8 Days Before Alphabet Reports (tipranks.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQEmm-33Zeqp00XzsW8ANNNXDL4Vcz-R_6swmMhnupA0QUl5NwsYBv3n6-0tXT_nwj8Dwh8mpuDVoRayLJqrpZaD9xPpu8WBZ4jJluUuPpfUOHYq8TK5E65-DjudkUHXDxyzqYMpTmjTYnxdBoyG41mjjVJVFq5FA9JuBCmKZIzCuiXhmXmlNxF6FH4Bc1gREFv98L0JiSBJR1r5Ce3oA49JxIclNLJMbdh06InavHnvLusLhj2vzpSaB6AnLHIhFZfI3w8RuaXI4H6pJw==
8. Google Cloud services disrupted in London; Revolut reports outage (euronext.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQG9K58jQCSCX89UNpY3SboQxF1lSt7HvZ6sAcUDqsFZZ-nZv7InzDzsLsMcq-HLmk9qJxqsh69SIZP6bOFKheX8HVX7sHPDvvixXVLtYvOPKZjJMUr_U9LF4IxUHCVkjySJunJQtR-qxQDxLTWdFIJnN1HAD62cgqABHnQXo0O2cZnoEwuzjz7rH5uHWBiGa000MacAexiy7xpWJZsCXjA9u0bYoUvX3Eus
9. Google Cloud London data centre outage affects Revolut, Lloyds Bank, HSBC (malaymail.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQGgy3IEA12Ui04aA5XyxRDwajBJTV7Jk0_YErCuC1ESDu2Dexosekv-IsEshAj5TSXBkkE93mGQqs_7c4HPUmmvbh4gKdWzjMjQmAxrj6SQ-0vrhIdyJVOkDWpdbat4pqOo-9Ujki2vg7TyPMMjuFHFjoaNOymSa7-1hybflKvPP291QdoVxc79Qwx8utzIecqKTPpaPP5ORE5w4qQU-Ky6ftFY16LMY5iW1Kb05V-FxNs68VoJLztky4rLlTbxXjcwBQ==
10. Google Cloud outage hits London region as Revolut also goes down (thenextweb.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQHkttozm1INwW63kKHjUy_-Sa32Y72lnXn2IWHVZMRdEQ1ePVUNHImvEVxgYkItLCPOAFXHYvq5CmidLAb0R9vHOsJKO79HuPtMF7_HwKnl0s3Lgiv7sN5M4KP1Fb83Idr9SEd6chn8tXZCG4sXrRE9BrlaJCOE5R
11. Google Cloud Status Dashboard (google.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQF13fKd0rns5P9x9-EUJbqdrYF_1ub210aYcUIC7fTAhO7QrH9GeR6ADY73sJQK8UrqtavutGKXepdTqbgBSLBf3580a10eYgc4wNmo0TusWi5nTjwrFqu6TnfFCAdBYuqiBWuce4zw8uldHDhYrkDZ_W0JUhVXd7cY
12. Major Google Cloud Outage Hits Europe and Could Impact Gaming (insider-gaming.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQGd8w6s2vpVhCiPOFgq1ElT7jTTwhVJqJJtWtyPBnRuoUd3RaIMyKVHcW0LJ2YqsbREOngjQMV8XBnZXuX_hiX4MDSNdlU_iJuFRZ2uti843fVzFotK6BmPj895KUfXqEJHAXdlCeFhsVG2bxj8WVRnrLxRepubmH5oS6oHUfvGto2A3qHoeG5ormU=
13. Google Cloud outage: everything you need to know (techradar.com) — https://vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com/grounding-api-redirect/AUZIYQEPIQMBz4QcVGkKv5GukCaYsiejPvBZbkMUvMarpAQbcr4x9vHS_4KU4terVzVBOkiGjQlEgzADk2pA_4C9Cf915WJKxtan1AqkkKXmbVPJH89xVZQAbHkgayvCWFSMr8PTXky1QTbFQJ8f8Wpg7KB-bxdydnASIERxssw82qxQ1n7l-JgN5rsA5iAGbPSgo_Y8XCen3zN-Y61aqtYhSWVJHhRu-8511hfstl0GlSuJfQ==