Bank of England to Regulate Amazon, Google and Other Tech Giants

The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority will gain powers to regulate major tech firms starting Monday, July 15, 2026 ^[1].

This move marks a significant shift in oversight as the UK government seeks to mitigate the systemic risks posed by the concentration of financial infrastructure within a few private companies. Because the global economy relies heavily on cloud computing and data services, a single outage at a major provider could freeze banking services across the country.

The new regulatory framework targets four large-scale providers ^[1], specifically naming Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft. These companies will be classified as "critical third parties," granting the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority the authority to oversee their operations and resilience protocols ^[1].

The primary objective of the expanded powers is to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard the UK economy ^[1]. Regulators said the interdependence between the financial sector and these tech giants creates a single point of failure.

Reporting indicates that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers ^[1]. By treating these tech firms as systemic entities, the Bank of England can mandate stricter security standards and audit the firms' ability to recover from crashes.

The initiative aims to prevent a scenario where a technical glitch or cyberattack at a cloud provider triggers a wider financial crisis. The regulators will now have the legal standing to intervene and set requirements for how these firms manage the data and infrastructure of the UK's most important financial institutions ^[1].