Google disruption causes bank failures

Google headquarters in London: problems beyond national borders

A major failure of Google cloud services in the UK has led to massive technical disruptions in Europe – with consequences for bank customers. According to the company and those affected, infrastructure in the London region was affected, which also had an impact on European customers.

We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services. 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...

The disruptions affected, among other things, digital payments and account services of financial service providers such as the digital bank Revolut. Users in various European countries complained of temporary restrictions on app access and transactions. Numerous other online services, websites and enterprise applications that rely on Google’s infrastructure also experienced problems.

Also at the direct bank ING access via the app and the website on Tuesday morning for several hours. Around 2 p.m., the ING reported that it was able to eliminate the disturbances. The bank itself stated on SPIEGEL request, there is “no evidence of an external cause”, the bank also sees no connection with the Google failure.

Google acknowledged the technical difficulties about its status pages. The reason is a “power event”, i.e. a problem with the power supply. The exact extent of the international damage and the cause of the failure in the London data center zone were further analysed. In the meantime, the problems with the power supply should have been solved and the services restarted. However, it may still take time for the services of the affiliated companies to fully run again.