Offline card payments – the options are now expanding

“Sweden’s payments market is changing rapidly, with a high degree of digitalisation and low use of cash. Cards are by far the most common method of payment in shops today. “By ensuring that card payments continue to function even in the event of disruptions and interruptions to data communications, we are significantly improving our contingency preparedness,” says Governor Erik Thedéen. 

The expanded scope for offline payments is the result of an agreement reached in October 2025 between card issuers, card networks, card acquirers, the retail sector and the Riksbank. Over the past year, the actors involved have implemented the technical and regulatory measures required to facilitate the change. 

“A resilient payment system requires all participants in the system to take responsibility. “In this project, we would like to extend our special thanks to the market for its active and constructive cooperation,” says Erik Thedéen. 

The expanded offline functionality covers the vast majority of Visa or Mastercard cards issued to people aged 18 or over by card issuers that have signed up to the agreement. These are valid from today for the purchase of essential goods, such as food, medicines and fuel at manned petrol stations. This function can be used when data communications are unavailable, for example in the event of serious disruptions, cyber-attacks, peacetime crises or during a state of heightened alert. The function only works with physical cards in combination with a PIN. The Riksbank therefore urges households to keep their physical cards and PINs readily to hand.

As the next step in its efforts to enhance the resilience of the payment system, the Riksbank has launched a project in collaboration with Getswish and the relevant companies to investigate, during the course of the year, the feasibility of offline functionality for the Swish payment service.