Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economy
The Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including Amazon and Google from next week, amid fears that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers.
From Monday, the Bank and fellow City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be in charge of ensuring that four large-scale providers of cloud and tech services to banks are resilient and actively reducing the risk of cyber-attacks and major outages that could disrupt services for millions of people and businesses across the UK.
This will mean having “direct” oversight of local arms of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle and Microsoft, all of which have been identified as “critical third parties” by the UK government, according to an announcement on Friday.
The companies will have to prove they are carrying out adequate stress testing, showing how they respond to imagined emergency scenarios that put their operations under severe strain. They will also be forced to report to the Bank of England and FCA any major incidents such as cyber-attacks, power outages and the impacts of natural disasters.
