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The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group completed SIMEX26 on 8 October 2026, rehearsing how the UK financial sector would respond to a global cloud services disruption. The exercise involved 38 major banks and market infrastructure operators, alongside financial authorities; the Bank of England said firms are expected to act on lessons from the exercise. The scenario was not based on specific threat intelligence.
The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) completed a sector-wide simulation on 8 October 2026, testing how UK financial firms and authorities would respond to a simulated global disruption to cloud services. The Bank of England said 38 major banks and market infrastructure operators took part and that firms are expected to use lessons from the exercise to strengthen their resilience.
The biennial exercise, called SIMEX26, brought financial firms together with UK authorities for a crisis-management scenario involving disruption to cloud-based services. CMORG is chaired by the Bank of England and UK Finance, and its participants include HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and firms across the financial sector. The London Stock Exchange Group hosted the exercise, which was opened by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby.
Participants worked through a simulated incident rather than responding to an actual outage. The exercise also included a live meeting of the Bank-chaired Cross Market Business Continuity Group, which provides strategic direction for the sector’s collective response to systemic incidents. The Bank said the scenario was developed with industry experts and was not informed by specific threat information.
In a statement, the Bank said it expects firms to take action based on the exercise to improve their ability to respond to severe operational and cyber scenarios. It did not publish a detailed account of the scenario’s events, individual firms’ performance or specific findings and recommendations.
Testing Responses to Cloud Disruption
Financial services rely on technology supplied and operated outside individual banks, including cloud services. A major disruption could affect firms’ ability to provide critical services, while connections among banks and market infrastructure operators can make coordination important across the sector. SIMEX26 tested collective crisis-management arrangements against that kind of disruption; it did not establish that an outage occurred or that any particular service failed.
The Bank’s expectation that firms act on the exercise signals that the work is intended to inform resilience efforts, rather than serve only as a rehearsal. However, the published announcement does not identify changes that firms must make, set deadlines or describe any assessment of how well participants performed. The practical effects will depend on follow-up actions by firms and authorities.
For customers and businesses, the relevance is the continued delivery of essential financial services during severe disruption. Bank of England Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation Katharine Braddick said the exercise reflected firms’ focus on maintaining critical services and described preparedness as important to financial stability. That is the regulator’s stated rationale, not evidence that the simulation changed the level of risk or guaranteed continuity in a real incident.
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A Biennial Test of Sector Readiness
SIMEX is part of CMORG’s programme to build the UK financial sector’s capacity to respond collectively to disruptive events. CMORG identifies systemic risks, develops sector-wide mitigation approaches and shares capabilities and knowledge. It also oversees the Sector Response Framework, the arrangements for coordinated industry action during systemic incidents. The Bank said the framework is a key component tested through SIMEX.
The exercise follows earlier editions in 2022 and 2024. According to the Bank, those exercises considered a cyberattack against a major bank and disruption to critical infrastructure outside the financial sector. SIMEX26 shifted its focus to a global cloud services disruption. The Bank also cited recent work on third-party resilience, secure innovation involving AI and other emerging technologies, and cyber preparedness, response and recovery. It did not provide further detail on those initiatives in the announcement.
“That preparedness is essential to safeguarding financial stability.”
— Katharine Braddick, Bank of England Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation and chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority
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Exercise Findings Not Yet Published
The Bank’s announcement does not disclose a detailed exercise report, the precise sequence of events in the simulated outage, or which response capabilities were tested at each stage. It also provides no public evaluation of participant performance, weaknesses identified or remedial measures agreed. The scenario was designed with industry experts but, the Bank said, was not based on specific threat intelligence; it should not be read as an alert about a known cloud incident.
It is also not clear which firms beyond the stated group of 38 took part, what follow-up actions individual firms will take, or how progress will be monitored. The announcement gives no timetable for publishing findings or for another sector-wide exercise.
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Firms to Apply Exercise Lessons
The immediate next step is for firms to consider lessons from SIMEX26 and strengthen their resilience and response arrangements, in line with the Bank’s stated expectation. The announcement does not specify required actions or deadlines. CMORG’s wider work on the Sector Response Framework and cross-sector capabilities will continue, but no date for a public findings report or for the next SIMEX has been announced.
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Key Questions
What was SIMEX26?
SIMEX26 was CMORG’s biennial crisis-management simulation. It tested a coordinated response to a scenario involving a global disruption to cloud-based services.
Who took part in the exercise?
The Bank of England said 38 of the largest and most systemically important banks and market infrastructure operators participated, alongside financial authorities and other sector representatives. The London Stock Exchange Group hosted the exercise.
Was there an actual cloud outage?
No actual outage was reported. The exercise was a simulation, and the Bank said its scenario was not informed by specific threat information.
What happens after the simulation?
The Bank expects participating firms to take action based on the exercise to strengthen resilience and responses to severe operational and cyber scenarios. It has not published specific recommendations, deadlines or a detailed findings report.
Source: primary
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