Sweden's Riksbank to ensure offline card payments for essential goods from 1 July 2026

Sweden's Riksbank published a keynote speech by Governor Erik Thedéen on vulnerabilities and resilience in a more uncertain geopolitical environment, with a focus on operational preparedness for critical financial functions. Thedéen said the Riksbank will, together with a broad set of market participants, ensure it is possible to make offline card payments in Sweden for essential goods from 1 July 2026. The speech highlighted the Nordic region’s high dependence on digital payments and a small number of international providers, noting that cards linked to international card networks account for around 90 per cent of transactions in physical retail trade and that only 5 per cent of Swedes used cash for their most recent in-store purchase. Work has also started on investigating whether offline payments could be enabled via the Swish instant mobile payment service, alongside efforts to preserve and strengthen cash for contingency purposes, including welcoming a Swedish Government proposal to require staffed grocery stores and pharmacies to accept cash from 1 July 2026. Thedéen also pointed to the need to protect critical payment infrastructure against cyber and physical attacks and to strengthen Nordic-Baltic and European cooperation, including through crisis-preparedness exercises and bilateral preparedness work.