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The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group completed SIMEX26 on 8 October, rehearsing how the UK financial sector and authorities would respond to a global cloud services disruption. The Bank of England said firms are expected to use lessons from the exercise to strengthen their resilience; no specific threat informed the scenario.
The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) completed a sector-wide crisis simulation on 8 October, asking the UK financial sector to practise responding to a hypothetical global disruption to cloud services. The exercise, SIMEX26, involved 38 major banks and market infrastructure operators working alongside financial authorities to rehearse a coordinated response and protect essential services.
The Bank of England and UK Finance, which chair CMORG, organised the biennial exercise with participation from HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and the wider financial sector. The exercise was opened by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby and hosted by London Stock Exchange Group. The Bank said participants worked through a wide-ranging crisis-management scenario; the published account does not provide operational details of the simulated events or individual firms’ responses.
SIMEX26 also included a live meeting of the Bank-chaired Cross Market Business Continuity Group. That group provides strategic direction for the sector’s collective response to systemic incidents. CMORG said the exercise tests collective response capabilities, including the Sector Response Framework, which sets out how the industry should coordinate during severe disruption.
Following the exercise, the Bank said it expects firms to take action based on what they learned, with the aim of strengthening resilience and response capability for severe operational and cyber scenarios. The announcement does not identify specific changes firms must make or publish an assessment of how participants performed.
Protecting Essential Financial Services
A major cloud services disruption could affect services on which financial firms rely, creating risks that extend beyond an individual provider or institution. SIMEX26 focused on how firms and authorities would coordinate if disruption were broad enough to pose a systemic challenge. The exercise was a rehearsal, not evidence that an outage occurred.
For customers and businesses, the practical concern is whether essential financial services can continue, or be restored, during a serious incident. The Bank’s expectation that firms act on lessons from the exercise makes the follow-up relevant: preparedness depends not only on rehearsing a response, but on addressing weaknesses the exercise may reveal. The announcement does not specify which services or vulnerabilities were tested.
Bank of England Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation Katharine Braddick said the collaboration reflected firms’ priority on maintaining critical services and that preparedness was essential to safeguarding financial stability. UK Finance Chief Executive David Postings said the exercise enabled participants to strengthen preparedness and respond to disruptive events while continuing to deliver essential customer services. These are statements about the exercise’s purpose and intended value, rather than published findings about its results.
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A Biennial Test of Sector Coordination
SIMEX is part of CMORG’s continuing programme to test the financial sector’s response to difficult disruption scenarios. The Bank’s announcement says exercises in 2022 and 2024 covered a cyberattack against a major bank and disruption to critical infrastructure outside the financial sector. SIMEX26 shifted the focus to global cloud services, while retaining the wider purpose of rehearsing coordinated action across firms and authorities.
CMORG works to identify systemic risks, develop sector-wide mitigation approaches and share capabilities and knowledge. The group is chaired by the Bank of England and UK Finance and includes public authorities and industry participants. The Bank also cited recent work on third-party engagement and resilience, secure innovation in response to AI and other emerging technologies, and cyber preparedness, response and recovery.
The 2026 scenario was developed with industry experts, according to the Bank, but was not informed by specific threat information. That distinction means the exercise should be understood as preparedness planning, not a warning that authorities had identified an imminent cloud-related incident.
“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
Exercise Findings Not Yet Published
The Bank’s announcement confirms that SIMEX26 took place and describes its scenario and participants, but it does not disclose detailed findings, weaknesses identified, or how well firms and authorities performed. It is also unclear what specific follow-up measures individual firms will take, or how the Bank will track them.
The scenario was hypothetical and was not based on specific threat information, according to the Bank. No real cloud outage or service interruption was reported as part of the announcement. Further details on the scenario’s scope, participating firms’ roles and any lessons judged suitable for public release were not provided.
Firms Must Act on Lessons
The immediate next step identified by the Bank is for firms to use the exercise to strengthen their resilience and ability to respond to severe operational and cyber scenarios. The announcement does not set a public timetable, name required actions or say when the results will be reported.
CMORG’s broader work on collective response, third-party resilience and cyber preparedness is set to continue. Any later public update on actions or lessons would help clarify how the exercise changes sector planning; for now, the confirmed outcome is the completion of the simulation and the Bank’s expectation of follow-up by firms.
Key Questions
What was SIMEX26?
SIMEX26 was CMORG’s biennial crisis simulation, completed on 8 October 2026. It rehearsed a response to a hypothetical global disruption to cloud services.
Who took part in the exercise?
The Bank of England said 38 major banks and market infrastructure operators participated alongside financial authorities and the wider financial sector. The exercise was hosted by London Stock Exchange Group.
Was there an actual cloud outage?
The announcement describes a simulation scenario, not a real outage. The Bank said the scenario was not informed by specific threat information.
What happens after the simulation?
The Bank expects firms to act on lessons from the exercise to strengthen resilience and response capability. It has not publicly specified the required measures or a reporting timetable.
Source: primary
