UK and EU financial regulators seek answers from Google over cloud outage

European and British financial regulators are demanding answers from Google after a major cloud outage recently took down several banking websites. While your local store might not feel the impact of a server farm issue immediately, this event is a wake-up call for how you process payments and financing. Regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are increasingly worried that the entire financial system relies on just a few massive tech companies. If Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services goes down, your ability to offer Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) or process credit applications at the point of sale could vanish instantly. For retailers and operators, this news highlights the hidden risks in a digital-first world. Most modern consumer financing platforms are 'cloud-native.' This means if their hosting provider fails, your financing options fail too. You cannot control Google's uptime, but you can control your backup plans. Regulators are likely to push for stricter 'resilience' rules, which could force your lending partners to change how they manage their technology. Expect more talk about 'multi-cloud' strategies and stricter service level agreements (SLAs) from your fintech providers in the coming months.

Source: Finextra — Lending

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