The UK's HM Treasury has designated Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle as "Critical Third Parties" (CTPs) for their role in providing cloud services to financial services.
As revealed on the UK government website on July 10, starting today, July 13, the companies will be subject to direct regulatory oversight aimed at helping protect the UK's financial system.
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The move has been motivated by banks, insurers, and financial market infrastructures' increasing reliance on cloud services, meaning that "disruption at a major supplier could affect multiple firms at the same time, potentially impacting services customers depend on."
The designation will mean that the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority, and Financial Conduct Authority will work together to jointly oversee the cloud providers and the services provided to the financial sector. The regulators will have the power to gather information, assess resilience, and work with third parties to address risks to the continuity of critical services, including by making and enforcing CTP-specific rules.
