UK: financial services companies are given green light to use cloud computing

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has recently issued Guidance for firms outsourcing to the ‘cloud’ and other third-party IT services, saying that financial services companies operating in the UK can use cloud based services, ‘with appropriate consideration, in a manner that complies with [the FCA] rules’. The guidelines, which are not legally binding, outline specific requirements on outsourcing by financial services forms. The FCA recommends, among others, that financial companies wanting to use cloud service should ‘agree a data residency policy with the provider upon commencing a relationship with them, which sets out the jurisdictions in which the firm’s data can be stored, processed and managed’.