Bank of England runs SIMEX26 cloud-outage exercise with 38 systemic firms

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

On 8 October 2026 the Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group completed SIMEX26, its biennial crisis simulation, this time built around a global cloud services outage. The 38 largest and most systemically important banks and market infrastructure operators took part alongside the Bank, FCA and HM Treasury. This segment covers what was tested, who was in the room, and what the Bank now expects firms to do next.

• SIMEX26 completed on 8 October 2026 and focused on a global disruption to cloud-based services.
• The 38 largest and most systemically important banks and market infrastructure operators participated, with HM Treasury, the FCA and the wider sector.
• The Bank now expects firms to take action based on the exercise to further strengthen resilience to severe operational and cyber scenarios.
• The exercise included a live meeting of the Bank-chaired Cross Market Business Continuity Group and exercised the Sector Response Framework.
• The scenario was not informed by any specific threat information but was developed alongside industry experts.

Executive summary

The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) completed its biennial simulation exercise, SIMEX26, on 8 October 2026, the Bank of England announced on 9 October. This year's exercise was built around a scenario of global disruption to cloud-based services. CMORG is…

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