UK Brings Large Tech Providers into Regulatory Perimeter as Critical Third Parties
The UK government has designated major tech firms, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle, as 'Critical Third Parties' to ensure financial system stability. These companies will now be subject to direct oversight by UK financial regulators.
Why it matters
This represents a significant expansion of financial regulatory power into the technology sector to mitigate systemic risks.
Related Practices Introduction Financial regulators globally have become concerned about the increasing reliance of financial institutions and financial market infrastructure ("FMI") on a small number of third-party service providers, particularly in cloud and data services. In response, in 2023 the UK introduced a Critical Third Party ("CTP") regime, the policy objective of which is to mitigate the systemic risks that could arise if the disruption or failure of a major service provider were to affect the resilience of financial institutions or the wider UK financial system. Last week, HM Treasury ("HMT") designated, with effect from 13 July 2026, the following global cloud services and technology providers as CTPs: Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, Google Cloud EMEA Limited, Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, and Oracle Corporation UK Limited. [1]
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in