The Riksbank has published its Payments Report 2025, setting out priorities to strengthen the safety, efficiency and accessibility of Sweden’s payments system with a particular focus on civil preparedness. The report argues that it must become possible to pay offline by card and to use cash for essential goods in the event of serious disruption, and it calls for action by the state, payment market participants and households. Offline card payments are singled out as a key resilience gap, given Sweden’s limited current capability and the lack of offline functionality for contactless card and mobile payments. The Riksbank has convened relevant stakeholders and is targeting a solution by 1 July 2026 that would allow offline card payments for essential goods during data-communication disruptions lasting up to seven days, for cardholders aged 18 and over with cards from banks covered by the Riksbank’s contingency planning regulations. On cash, it supports the Ministry of Finance’s Cash Inquiry and recommends that the Riksdag and Government legislate a cash obligation for essential goods and measures to protect the full cash chain, while considering a maximum limit for cash purchases to make the criminal economy more difficult. The report also links faster payments to both efficiency and new risk-management needs. It urges banks to offer more instant payment services beyond Swish using the updated infrastructure, and encourages banks to join the TIPS cross-currency service, which is expected to enable cross-currency payments from October 2025, while strengthening controls to prevent financial crime as instant payments grow. Separately, it highlights financial exclusion issues tied to access to payment accounts and argues for wider availability of payment accounts with basic functions where anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing requirements are a barrier.

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