A power failure inside one of Google Cloud’s London data centers knocked Revolut’s card payments, ATM withdrawals, transfers and stock trading offline on Tuesday morning, and disrupted remote court hearings across England and Wales. Other UK services reported problems through the morning, though a direct link to Google Cloud is confirmed for only some of them. Google restored full service the same day.
While America Slept: the Outage on a US Clock
Reconstructed from the confirmed timestamps (this timeline is our analysis):
- 02:08 AM ET Tuesday (Oct 20): a “power event” begins in Google Cloud’s europe-west2-b zone, London (06:08 UTC / 07:08 BST / 23:08 PDT Monday), per Google’s status dashboard.
- ~03:00 AM ET: Downdetector logs 1,500+ Revolut problem reports (08:00 UK time); StatusGator later counts 4,000+.
- Tuesday morning, UK time: Revolut confirms a disruption affecting multiple services; problem reports pile in for banks, NHS England, Royal Mail, DPD, GOV.UK and Rightmove, though a direct link to Google Cloud is unconfirmed for most of these.
- Afternoon, UK time: Google mitigates the power event and restores full service availability the same day.
The incident unfolded during the US overnight (it began at 02:08 AM ET), and Google says full service availability was restored later the same day. If you woke up in the US to the headline, the outage was already over. What still matters is Google’s incident report, when it lands, and whether every bank that reported problems was really on the same cloud. Those answers are not public yet.
Who Was Hit — and What We Can Actually Say
This distinction matters, because a lot of logos got thrown around on Tuesday morning. We split the blast radius into two groups:
| Confirmed disruption | What we know |
|---|---|
| Revolut (80M+ customers globally, per company figures reported Tuesday) | Company statement: card payments, ATM withdrawals, transfers, currency exchange and stock trading down or partially working. Revolut told customers “all our customers’ money and data are safe.” |
| HMCTS Cloud Video Platform | Used for remote court hearings; barristers in England and Wales could not proceed with trials and hearings, per the HM Courts and Tribunals Service and the Criminal Bar Association. |
| Budgeting app Emma | Down “due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am,” per its own post on X. |
On the cause: Google described a “power event” in its London zone. Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Revolut’s outage was related to that disruption, an attributed account, not a link either company has confirmed on record.
Reported only (linkage to Google Cloud not established): user-report spikes for Lloyds, HSBC, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Nationwide, Barclays, Royal Mail, DPD, Rightmove, Screwfix, Sky, Asda, BT, NHS England and GOV.UK. It is not clear every reported problem was connected to the outage, so treat these as names people mentioned, not casualties.
The Same Morning as the Hostinger Outage: Coincidence?
TechReview readers may notice a strange parallel. Our own reporting earlier today found that Hostinger’s dashboard, API and checkout went offline from 06:19 UTC, eleven minutes after this London power event began at 06:08 UTC, after what Hostinger’s status page described as a Google Cloud data-center power failure.
That timing is real, and worth noting. Whether the two incidents share a cause is unconfirmed: Hostinger described a Google Cloud data-center power failure without naming a region, and neither company has connected the two events.
What Should I Do If My Card Was Declined This Morning?
If your card was declined or your banking app went dark on Tuesday morning, do not hammer retry — outage-era declines can stack up pending holds. Check the bank’s status page first, pay with a backup method, and keep your receipt until transactions settle.
- Check your bank’s status page or official social account before retrying a declined payment.
- Try a backup card from a different bank or a mobile wallet instead of retrying.
- Keep the receipt, because outage-era declines sometimes surface later as pending charges.
- Watch your transaction feed for 2–3 days and flag any duplicate charges immediately.
- Never “verify” your account through links in outage-time scam texts. Open the app yourself.
What Google Says Caused It
Google’s own wording is “power event”: on its status dashboard, the company attributed the disruption to a power failure in the London zone. The budgeting app Emma told users: “This is a technical outage, not a security issue.” No evidence of a cyberattack has been reported. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said it is engaging with Google and affected firms to understand the impact.
Context (via Reuters): in July 2026, UK regulators brought Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft and Oracle under direct oversight as critical third-party suppliers to the financial sector, and EU regulators designated Google Cloud among 19 companies as critical third-party computing providers. Days like this are exactly what that designation was written for.
Sources: Google Cloud status dashboard; Reuters and AP reporting; Geo News (HMCTS statement); Glasgow Times (Revolut and Emma statements); Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar (outage trackers).
