At Google Cloud, we take our role in the financial ecosystem very seriously. We firmly believe that operational resilience is essential to driving and sustaining responsible innovation.

Today, we mark a milestone in our ongoing commitment to the financial sector that’s directly relevant to our customers in the U.K. On July 10, the U.K. Treasury designated Google Cloud EMEA as a critical third party (CTP) to the U.K. financial sector under the CTP regime.

This designation takes account of the number and type of U.K. firms using our services and the materiality of their use cases. We acknowledge HMT’s decision on the systemic impact of our services and are committed to playing our part in safeguarding the stability of, and confidence in, the U.K. financial system.

Building sector-wide resilience

As a CTP, Google Cloud EMEA will be directly overseen by the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These authorities are known collectively as the U.K. financial regulators. 

In their oversight of CTPs, the U.K. financial regulators will aim to build sector-wide operational resilience. Google Cloud wholeheartedly supports this objective. 

We will continue to engage constructively with the U.K. financial regulators as we enter this new phase of deeper collaboration. We are confident that this ongoing dialogue will deliver tangible benefits for the U.K. financial sector. 

Enabling customer success

Alongside our commitment to effective oversight, Google Cloud remains dedicated to supporting our customers with the requirements for U.K. firms relating to operational resilience, outsourcing and third party risk management. 

• We provide insight into how Google Cloud can help customers meet their operational resilience obligations under PRA Supervisory Statement 1/21 in our SS1/21 whitepaper.

• We explain how Google Cloud’s contracts for UK firms address the outsourcing and third party risk management requirements under PRA Supervisory Statement 2/21 our SS2/21 mapping.

While the CTP regime does not replace these requirements, it is designed to complement them. We are confident that it will.

Looking ahead

We look forward to collaborating with the U.K. financial regulators under the CTP regime. We will do so with the same commitment to ongoing transparency and assurance that we offer our customers and their regulators today.  

As this new era begins, our core objective remains unchanged: to ensure Google Cloud is the most secure, scalable, and resilient platform for digital transformation.