Revolut payments disrupted as Google Cloud reports London power outage
Revolut customers faced disruption to payments and other banking functions on October 20 as an outage in Google Cloud’s London region affected services used by businesses. Card payments and cash withdrawals were among the Revolut functions reported as unavailable or only partly available. Google said a power event had triggered the infrastructure failure and that the issue had been mitigated for most cloud customers, but a full Revolut service restoration had not been confirmed when this report was prepared.
Reuters reported that a person familiar with the matter linked Revolut’s disruption to the Google Cloud incident. The bank acknowledged problems affecting multiple services and said its customers’ money and data were safe. That reassurance is the company’s statement, rather than an independent assessment of its systems.
Payments and access affected
The disruption extended beyond being unable to open a banking app. Reuters described card payments and ATM withdrawals as unavailable or partially available on Revolut’s status page, meaning customers could encounter difficulty using their accounts for everyday transactions as well as checking them online.
At 14:58 UTC on October 20, the Revolut UK system-status page still showed a partially unavailable service summary. The page lists personal and business functions separately; its overall warning should not be read as proof that every customer, country or listed function experienced the same failure. A confirmed total of affected customers was not available in the reporting reviewed.
The BBC’s live coverage also reported Revolut’s acknowledgement and apology. The bank said it had been working on the issue since identifying it that morning. Neither that statement nor Google’s infrastructure recovery update established a completed restoration time for Revolut’s payment services.
Google identifies a power event
Google’s official incident record places the cloud disruption’s start at 06:08 UTC on October 20. Its dashboard displays that time as 23:08 Pacific Daylight Time on October 19; these refer to the same event, not two separate outages.
The provider identified the affected location as its London region, known as europe-west2, and said a power event caused an outage in the europe-west2-b availability zone. An availability zone is a distinct deployment location within a cloud region. Google also reported elevated errors and intermittent network problems across services in the region.
The Register reported Google’s explanation and the recovery limitations. The provider said the power event had been mitigated and that it was prioritising existing workloads. Customers could still have difficulty creating new workloads while that recovery proceeded.
In a 14:03 UTC update, Google said the issue had been mitigated for most customers but was believed to affect a very small number who still needed engineering support. The incident record lists an end time of 14:00 UTC; Google said it would publish an analysis after its investigation. That mitigation notice is not a universal all-clear, and it does not establish a completed recovery time for Revolut’s payment services.
Wider banking impact needs careful attribution
Other banks reported difficulties during the same morning. Halifax acknowledged app and website problems, while Lloyds told reporters its app was operating normally but some customers were having trouble with certain online services. The BBC also obtained an HSBC statement acknowledging access difficulties. These reports do not establish that all banking services were offline or that every institution had the same technical dependency as Revolut.
For continuing updates, visit SID’s Revolut service page and Google Cloud service page, alongside the real-time outage view and latest outage news. Website owners can explore Status Is Down plans and sign up for services that help them stay informed about disruptions affecting their digital operations.
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