The UK has placed Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Oracle under direct regulatory oversight after designating the cloud service providers as critical third parties to the country’s financial system.
Reuters reported that effective July 13, the designation covers Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd, Google Cloud EMEA Ltd, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL and Oracle Corporation UK Ltd, reflecting the financial sector’s growing dependence on cloud infrastructure.
The UK government said the move is intended to strengthen the resilience of financial services, as disruptions at major cloud providers could simultaneously affect banks, insurers and financial market infrastructure operators.
It noted that increasing reliance on cloud services means outages at a key supplier could have widespread consequences, potentially disrupting essential services relied upon by customers across the financial system.
The designation will bring the four technology firms under direct regulatory oversight as part of efforts to safeguard the stability and continuity of the UK’s financial sector.
