Mika Rautio

"Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia are rolling out offline card payment systems to provide a back-up if internet connections are lost, including due to sabotage, Bank of Finland board member Tuomas Valimaki said on Wednesday. ... Sweden's central bank told Reuters that it hoped to establish a system by July 1, 2026, that would allow Swedes to make offline card payments to buy essential goods in the event of disruptions lasting up to seven days." https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nordics-estonia-plan-offline-card-payment-back-up-if-internet-cut-2025-05-07/ #cardpayments #businesscontinuity #offlinepayments #informationsecurity

@v_d_richards@literatur.social In the end consumer choices dictate the policies. I think it is a more logical action to improve resilience of digital payments, than just asking people to carry more cash in near-cashless Nordic countries. Personally I'd recommend any person to have at least 3 days of cash for essential use if possible. Then you at least have multiple options if one payment method fails.

@oliof@social.treehouse.systems rollouts are country specific and come with limitations. Usually enabling of offline payment is mainly meant for "essential" merchants (e.g., retail/gas stations/pharmacies), not for every merchant. In Sweden the system is based on existing infrastructure (offline EMV card payments) and meant for essential merchants so I would assume that rollout is completed or near-ready already as there are no new systems to introduce. More details on Sweden's implementation: https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payment-preparedness/offline-payments/

ECB has revealed shortlist of new proposed Euro note designs. “The redesign of the euro banknotes is part of a long-term effort by the Eurosystem to ensure that cash remains a secure, efficient and relatable means of payment, preserving citizens’ access to public money and their freedom to choose how to pay,” said ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr260723~c2d43f9170.en.html #ecb #euro #cash

@wraith@demanufacture.org it depends in the point-of-view. For example in many countries cash is very dominant method of payment and best feature of it is that it can be perfectly offline! :) Nordics have high volume of electronic payments (>90%) which makes the countries' payments very vulnerable to telecommunication disruptions.