UK Treasury Moves to Regulate Microsoft, Google Cloud Services Over Financial Stability Risk

Channel News Asia—The UK Treasury announced plans to bring major cloud computing providers, including Microsoft and Google, under direct regulatory oversight to protect the financial system from systemic concentration risk. The move reflects concern that widespread reliance on a handful of cloud providers could create dangerous vulnerabilities for banks and financial institutions. Under the proposed framework, regulators would have power to set operational standards and intervene if a provider's outage threatened financial stability. Britain is positioning itself as one of the first major economies to directly regulate cloud firms for their systemic financial importance.

• Channel News Asia — UK Treasury targeted Microsoft and Google for new cloud regulation over financial system risk
• The Independent (UK) — UK plans to bring major cloud providers under oversight to protect financial stability
• Reuters — UK to regulate cloud service providers Microsoft, Google and others to protect financial stability