The deputy chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Sarah Pritchard has said she would like to “strengthen” regulation on the tech service providers of the UK finance industry.
Speaking to The Guardian, Pritchard, who was given the position earlier this year, said the watchdog is “ready” to supervise the role of web services firms like Amazon and Google regarding their role in propping up UK finance.
Pritchard said there have been “very frequent reminders” of the importance of “good, strong operational resilience and cyber controls” in banking.
Last month, a high-profile outage at AWS saw thousands of businesses disrupted, with the banking and finance sector hit hard. Firms including Wise, Halifax, Lloyds and the London Stock Exchange were affected.
The aftermath of the outage saw many point out how vulnerable huge chunks of vital sectors are due to their reliance on a small number of major digital service providers.
Pritchard said in response to being questioned about the lack of tough regulatory oversight for this category of firms: “We would like to see the system strengthen and we stand ready to supervise jointly with the PRA and the Bank of England when there is a designation that’s made.”
Read more: UK financial regulator to focus on cyber defence
