British banking sector tests a global cloud service outage: what a Spanish company can learn from SIMEX26
The Bank of England and UK Finance coordinated a simulation on 8 October involving 38 banks and market infrastructures based on a global disruption of cloud services. Regulators expect each entity to act upon the findings.
News summary
The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG), chaired by the Bank of England and UK Finance, completed its biennial SIMEX26 exercise on 8 October 2026. This year’s scenario involved a global disruption of cloud-based services, with the participation of the 38 most significant financial institutions in the United Kingdom.
HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority also participated in the exercise. The Bank of England has indicated that it expects entities to act on the lessons learned to strengthen their ability to respond to severe operational and cyber scenarios.
The fact that a country’s financial sector simulates a widespread cloud outage indicates that the risk is no longer considered theoretical. The concentration of services within a few providers means that a failure can simultaneously affect a company, its bank, and its suppliers.
An SME does not need a simulation on that scale, but it can ask the same questions in a two-hour meeting: what stops working, who decides, how communications are handled, and what operations can continue without the cloud.
Source: Bank of England — 9 October 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are there similar exercises in Spain?
- SIMEX26 is a British financial sector exercise. In the EU, the DORA regulation requires the financial sector to conduct digital operational resilience testing, including dependencies on third-party technology providers.
- How much does it cost to conduct a tabletop exercise in an SME?
- The main cost is the time of key personnel. The priority is to prepare a realistic scenario and come away with concrete actions and assigned owners.
Concepts mentioned in this article: Cloud
A continuity plan is only as good as its testing. At Seintec, we prepare the exercise with you, review your dependencies, and design the recovery process. Speak to our team.
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