The Central Bank of Iceland has announced that consumers in Iceland will soon be able to make credit and debit card payments even when internet connections fail. Working with Icelandic card issuers and card acquirers, it has enabled offline payments of up to ISK 50,000 per payment card issued to a person of legal age in Iceland, to reduce disruption to domestic retail payments and allow continued purchases of essential goods. The offline option will apply only when the physical card is used, inserted into the payment terminal, and authenticated with a PIN. It is intended for necessities such as groceries, fuel, and medicine. Issuers may set higher limits for specific cards and may also allow offline payments for other goods. For existing cards, cardholders must activate offline functionality by making a chip-and-PIN purchase once so the chip stores the authorisation. Cardholders are also advised to check the authorisations attached to their cards, memorise their PIN, and keep the physical card available because PINs cannot be retrieved from online banking or apps during an outage. Activation for existing cards should be possible from 1 July 2026, although full rollout may take time across service providers. Cards issued on or after 1 July 2026 will include offline payment authorisation automatically. The Central Bank said it will continue work to strengthen payment resilience, including enabling contactless payments by smartphone and smartwatch during internet outages.
Central Bank of Iceland2026-06-03
Central Bank of Iceland enables offline card payments up to ISK 50000 during internet outages
The Central Bank of Iceland, with domestic card issuers and acquirers, will enable offline credit and debit card payments of up to ISK 50,000 per card issued to adults in Iceland to reduce disruption to retail payments during internet outages. The option will apply only to chip-and-PIN transactions with physical cards and is intended primarily for essential goods, with issuers able to set higher limits or extend use to other purchases. The Central Bank will also work to enable contactless payments by smartphone and smartwatch during outages.