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The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group completed SIMEX26 on 8 October, a sector-wide exercise simulating disruption to global cloud services. The Bank of England says firms are expected to use lessons from the exercise to strengthen their ability to respond to severe operational and cyber incidents.
The Cross-Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) completed a sector-wide simulation on 8 October in which UK financial firms and public authorities rehearsed responding to a global disruption to cloud services. The biennial exercise involved 38 of the country’s largest and most systemically important banks and market infrastructure operators, and the Bank of England said firms should act on its lessons to strengthen resilience.
The exercise, named SIMEX26, brought participating firms together with financial authorities for a crisis-management scenario. The Bank of England and UK Finance chair CMORG; participants also included HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and the wider financial sector. The London Stock Exchange Group hosted the exercise, which was opened by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby.
SIMEX26 also included a live meeting of the Bank-chaired Cross Market Business Continuity Group. The group provides strategic direction for the financial sector’s collective response to systemic incidents. The exercise tested the sector’s response arrangements using a scenario focused on cloud-based services, rather than reporting an actual outage.
The Bank of England said it expects firms to take action following the exercise to strengthen their ability to manage severe operational and cyber scenarios. The announcement did not describe individual firms’ performance, identify specific weaknesses or set out detailed remedial measures.
Cloud Disruption and Financial Services
Cloud services support technology used across financial businesses, so a major disruption could affect firms’ ability to deliver services and coordinate with other organisations. A scenario spanning the sector allows firms and authorities to practise the shared response to an incident that may not be contained within one company. The Bank’s focus on follow-up action signals that the exercise is intended to inform resilience work, not simply test coordination on the day.
For customers and the wider economy, the relevant question is whether essential financial services can continue, or recover in an orderly way, during severe disruption. The authorities have not said SIMEX26 revealed a particular weakness or that services were at risk. Its stated purpose was preparedness: rehearsing collective tools and responses that may be needed if a systemic incident occurs.
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SIMEX Builds on Earlier Exercises
SIMEX is a recurring programme intended to rehearse responses to challenging scenarios affecting financial-sector operations. Previous exercises in 2022 and 2024 addressed, respectively, a cyberattack against a major bank and disruption to critical infrastructure outside the financial sector, according to the Bank of England.
CMORG coordinates collective resilience work, including identifying systemic risks and developing sector-wide mitigation and response capabilities. Its Sector Response Framework sets out an approach to responding to systemic incidents and is a key component exercised through SIMEX. The Bank said the 2026 scenario was developed with industry experts and was not informed by specific threat intelligence.
The exercise also sits alongside recent work by the Bank, other financial authorities and industry on third-party resilience, secure innovation involving AI and other emerging technologies, and cyber preparedness, response and recovery. The announcement did not describe those projects as findings from SIMEX26.
“That preparedness is essential to safeguarding financial stability.”
— Katharine Braddick, Bank of England Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation and Prudential Regulation Authority chief executive
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Exercise Results Not Published
The Bank’s announcement does not say how participants performed, what specific operational gaps were identified, or whether any particular response failed during the simulation. It also gives no timetable or public list of actions firms are expected to take. The scenario was designed with industry experts but, according to the Bank, was not based on specific threat information; it should not be read as evidence that a particular cloud outage is imminent.
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Firms to Apply Exercise Lessons
The immediate next step is for participating firms to consider the exercise and take action to strengthen their resilience, as the Bank of England expects. The announcement does not specify a reporting deadline, a formal evaluation process or when further findings will be published. The Bank and CMORG’s wider work on sector response capabilities and third-party resilience is set to continue, but no further SIMEX26 milestone was announced.
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Key Questions
What was SIMEX26?
SIMEX26 was CMORG’s biennial crisis-management exercise. It rehearsed a response to a scenario involving global disruption to cloud-based services.
Who took part in the exercise?
The exercise involved 38 major banks and market infrastructure operators, alongside financial authorities and the wider financial sector. HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority were among the participants.
Was there an actual cloud outage?
No actual outage was reported. The Bank of England described SIMEX26 as a simulation exercise based on a cloud disruption scenario.
What happens after the exercise?
The Bank expects firms to take action to strengthen their ability to respond to severe operational and cyber scenarios. It has not published specific required actions or a timetable.
Was the scenario based on a known threat?
The Bank said the scenario was developed with industry experts and was not informed by specific threat information.
Source: primary
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