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NatWest cracks down on 13,000 staff attending office two days a month

Union furious as bank scraps remote-first policy from February 2027, requiring all of its UK employees to come in at least twice a week

NatWest has ordered 13,000 staff to increase their in-office days from two days a month to two days a week, angering its staff union.

The banking group, which serves customers under the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts brands, will require all of its nearly 40,000 UK staff to follow a strict two days a week office schedule from February 2027, abolishing a remote-first policy for thousands of employees.

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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

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Google says 'most' customers should be back online after cloud outage hit UK finance apps

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian
Google's cloud division competes with Amazon and Microsoft for enterprise customers.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

  • Multiple banking apps in the UK, including Revolut, faced disruptions on Tuesday morning.
  • Google Cloud experienced issues with its London-based cloud region and has since said services are coming back.
  • Revolut said in a statement that customers' money was safe while it investigated the disruption.

Google said it had largely resolved a cloud outage that appeared to knock out a number of online banking services.

The company said in an update at around 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday that the problem had been mitigated for the most part, with "a very small number" of customers still experiencing issues.

Google had said the outage had been caused by a "power event" at its europe-west2-b zone, which is based in London.

A handful of banking apps and services, including Halifax and Revolut, reported issues on Tuesday that coincided with Google Cloud's disruptions. Some companies said that the Google Cloud outage was the cause, while others attributed it to an unnamed third-party provider.

Users of some affected banking apps said in social media posts early Tuesday that they couldn't make card payments, log in to the app, or transfer money.

"We can confirm that all our customers' money and data are safe. We've been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologize to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused," Revolut said in a statement earlier in the day. The outage was due to Google Cloud, a person familiar with the matter said.

"We're aware some customers are having issues with our app and online. We're sorry about this and are working hard to fix it," Halifax posted on X.

Emma, a popular UK budgeting app, also reported outages on Tuesday. "Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7 a.m. This is a technical outage, not a security issue," the company said on X.

Some took to X to share how the outage was disrupting their lives. One person said they'd had to cancel their beauty appointments in Japan, and another said their card was declined at the airport and they couldn't reach the support team.

Emma is currently down due to a Google Cloud outage affecting services in London since 7am. This is a technical outage, not a security issue. We're monitoring closely and will update here as soon as the app is back. Sorry for the disruption 🙏

— Emma (@emma_finance) October 20, 2026

The outage appears to have affected non-finance companies, too, according to Downdetector, a site that tracks online service disruptions.

Earlier on Tuesday, an X account for DPD, a delivery service, said in a post that its website was affected, and the web-hosting platform SiteGround said the outage has hit its UK data center. SiteGround said in its post that its engineers were working with Google Cloud engineers to address the issue.

The UK's courts and tribunal service said that it was experiencing issues with its cloud-based video tools for remote hearings on Tuesday. "We're working with our technology partners to restore service," an account for the government service wrote in an X post.

The Google Cloud outage comes as the tech giant has competed with Amazon and Microsoft to win business from enterprises, startups, and governments, particularly amid the AI boom. Reliability is a big promise built into these deals, as outages can have costly consequences for customers.

Google is not alone in being affected by outages, though: Amazon, Microsoft, and others have suffered downtime this year.

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Millions unable to use Revolut app or cards as company suffers ‘service disruption’

UK banking company insists customers’ funds and data are safe despite problems with sign-in, card payments, transfers and withdrawals

Revolut customers have been unable to access their money after the banking app went down, affecting a number of services including card payments, cash withdrawals and transfers.

The UK banking company said its app was down because of a “service disruption” affecting several services, but insisted that customers’ funds and data were safe.

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© Photograph: Mateusz Słodkowski/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Mateusz Słodkowski/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Mateusz Słodkowski/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

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NAB to cut 2,500 jobs in massive restructure

Bank says bulk of redundancies will occur before end of year, citing challenging economy, competition and ‘rapid technological change’

National Australia Bank is cutting 2,500 jobs, representing 6% of its workforce, marking another significant round of cuts in a sector heavily exposed to disruption by artificial intelligence.

NAB said in a statement on Tuesday that the bulk of the redundancies would occur before the end of the year, citing a challenging economy, competition and “rapid technological change”.

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

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