The UK government just did something no major economy has done before: it told the biggest cloud providers in the world that they now answer to financial regulators. Not because they’re banks. Because banks can’t function without them.
HM Treasury designated Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle as the first “Critical Third Parties” under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. The designations were announced on July 10 and take effect from July 13, bringing these four tech giants under the direct oversight of the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority, and the Financial Conduct Authority.
The concentration problem nobody could ignore
More than 65% of UK organizations depend on these four companies for their cloud infrastructure. That’s not a technology stat. That’s a systemic risk stat.
What the new rules actually require
