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AWS Compliance Center

AWS Compliance Center

United Kingdom

Regulations

This page provides AWS financial institution customers with information about the legal and regulatory requirements in the United Kingdom that may apply to their use of AWS services.

Yes. Financial institutions in the United Kingdom are permitted to use cloud services, provided that they comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, such as those described below. 
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Bank of England (BoE) are the lead financial services regulators in the UK. The FCA is the conduct regulator for financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and is the prudential supervisor for firms not regulated by the PRA. The PRA is responsible for the prudential regulation and supervision of banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers, and major investment firms. The BoE, amongst other responsibilities, sets out rules for financial market infrastructures (FMIs).

Financial institutions in the UK may be subject to a number of legal and regulatory requirements, including on outsourcing arrangements, when they use cloud services.

On November 12, 2024, the UK Regulators published their final policy for Critical Third Parties (CTP) to the UK financial sector, the CTP Regime. The CTP Regime includes expectations and requirements imposed on CTPs that provide services to financial services firms for which failure in, or disruption to, could threaten the stability of or confidence in the UK financial system.  

The CTP regime does not eliminate, reduce, nor replace the accountability of firms on outsourcing and operational resilience and does not impose direct obligations on financial institutions. However, we expect AWS financial services customers will want to review their incident management, testing, and due diligence processes. Customers who have further questions or who would like more information, can contact their account representative.

Firms regulated by the FCA should review the relevant outsourcing requirements recorded in SYSC 8 and SYSC 13 of the FCA Handbook and note the FCA's Principles with a focus on Principle 11. Electronic money institutions and payment institutions should review the FCA's Payment Services and Electronic Money Approach Document . Firms regulated by the FCA and that are not subject to the EBA Guidelines (as defined below) should note the FCA's FG 16/5 guidance for firms outsourcing to the ‘cloud’ and other third-party IT services .

Firms regulated by the PRA, including dual regulated firms (those firms regulated by both the FCA and the PRA) should review the Outsourcing and Notifications parts of the PRA Rulebook and should also note the PRA's Fundamental Rules with a focus on Rule 7.

Firms should also consider the PRA’s supervisory statement (SS19/13) on resolution planning . PRA-regulated firms should also review the PRA's supervisory statement (SS2/21) on Outsourcing and third party risk management , which implements the EBA Guidelines on outsourcing and the EBA Guidelines on ICT and security risk management , which have applied since the end of March 2022, to the extent they remain relevant, now that the UK has left the EU.

Firms, depending upon whether they are regulated by the PRA, the FCA, or both should also consider the policy statements from the PRA on PS6/21 Operational Resilience and from the FCA on PS21/3 Building operational resilience , which has applied since the end of March 2022.

Regulations are changing rapidly in this space, and AWS is working to help customers proactively respond to new rules and guidelines. AWS encourages its financial institutions customers to obtain appropriate advice on their compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements that are relevant to their business, including local regulations, guidelines and laws.

Financial institutions who are using or planning to use AWS services can take the following steps to better understand their compliance needs:

1. Assess the materiality or criticality of the workload(s) under consideration and the relevant categories of data.

2. Review the AWS Shared Responsibility Model and map AWS responsibilities and customer responsibilities according to each AWS service that will be used. Customers can also use AWS Artifact to access AWS’s audit reports and conduct their assessment of the control responsibilities.

3. Assess their policies, processes and governance framework in line with the guidance in this page to meet their regulatory obligations while outsourcing to AWS.

4. Notify the relevant UK regulator(s) when the outsourcing agreements are deemed material in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements.

Customers who have further questions about how AWS services can enable their security and compliance needs, or who would like more information, can contact their account representative.

Financial institutions in the United Kingdom using AWS services should consider applicable data protection and data privacy requirements, including the Data Protection Act 2018 which is the UK's implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) .

The UK GDPR Addendum is part of our online Service Terms . This addendum is an important GDPR compliance component for us, our customers, and our partners and provides our customers with a number of important assurances.

While the UK has left the EU (Brexit), customers can continue to transfer data into and out of our AWS Regions throughout the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK, as they did before Brexit. Please note that the EEA includes the EU. Please visit AWS and Brexit for more information.

Resources

General

The following resources are available for download through AWS Artifact. Please note that an AWS account will be required to access AWS Artifact.

AWS User Guide for Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)

This guide provides detailed information regarding the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) by regulated entities who are subject to the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This includes, among others, financial entities (FEs) regulated by the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA); independent software vendors (ISVs), and information and communications technology (ICT) providers.

 

The following resources are publicly available:

AWS User Guide to the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)

This guide provides an introduction to the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) by entities who are subject to the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This includes, among others, financial entities (FEs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and information and communications technology (ICT) providers. This guide describes the responsibilities for AWS and our customers under the AWS Shared Responsibility Model. It details the compliance programs, services, and resources that customers can use to help evaluate their compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and provides an overview of the DORA regulatory requirements and implementation guidance that regulated customers can consider when using AWS.

Navigating GDPR Compliance on AWS

This document provides information about services and resources that Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers customers to help them align with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that might apply to their activities. These include adherence to IT security standards, the AWS Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalog (C5) attestation, adherence to the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) Code of Conduct, data access controls, monitoring and logging tools, encryption, and key management.

 

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) on AWS

This guide provides customers with information to be able to plan for and document the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance of their AWS workloads. This includes the selection of controls that meet specific PCI DSS requirements, planning of evidence gathering to meet assessment testing procedures, and explaining their control implementation to their PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).

Using AWS in the Context of Common Privacy and Data Protection Considerations

This document provides information to assist customers who want to use AWS to store or process content containing personal data, in the context of common privacy and data protection considerations. It will help customers understand the way AWS services operate, including how customers can address security and encrypt their content. The geographic locations where customers can choose to store content and other relevant considerations. The respective roles the customer and AWS each play in managing and securing content stored on AWS services.

AWS Compliance Quick Reference Guide

AWS has many compliance-enabling features that you can use for your regulated workloads in the AWS cloud. These features allow you to achieve a higher level of security at scale. Cloud-based compliance offers a lower cost of entry, easier operations, and improved agility by providing more oversight, security control, and central automation.

AWS Operational Resilience

The purpose of this paper is to describe how AWS and our customers in the financial services industry achieve operational resilience using AWS services.

Data Classification and Secure Cloud Adoption

This paper provides insight into classification schemes for public and private organizations to leverage when moving data to the cloud. It identifies practices and models currently implemented by global first movers and early adopters, examines how implementation of these schemes can simplify cloud adoption, and recommends practices to harmonize national requirements to internationally recognized standards and frameworks.

AWS Policy Perspectives: Data Residency

This paper addresses: The real and perceived security risks expressed by governments when they demand in-country data residency. Commercial, public sector, and economic impact of in-country data residency policies with a focus on government data. Considerations for governments to evaluate before enforcing requirements that can unintentionally limit public sector digital transformation goals leading to increased cybersecurity risk.

AWS Risk and Compliance

This document is intended to provide information to assist AWS customers with integrating AWS into their existing control framework supporting their IT environment. This document includes a basic approach to evaluating AWS controls and provides information to assist customers with integrating control environments. This document also addresses AWS-specific information around general cloud computing compliance questions.

AWS Security Audit Guidelines

Guidelines for systematically reviewing and monitoring your AWS resources for security best practices.