Riksbank expands offline card payment options for essential goods

From July 1, 2026, there are more options for paying by card in-store when buying essential goods in Sweden, Sveriges Riksbank said in a press release.

According to the release, the expansion of offline card payment options strengthens the resilience of the payment system and is based on an agreement between the Riksbank and market participants — a contingency arrangement designed to keep everyday purchases functioning when connectivity or payment infrastructure is disrupted.

The release records the change taking effect and its cooperative basis. The categories of goods covered, the retailers participating and the technical limits of offline operation were not detailed in the material available, and rest with the Riksbank's fuller documentation.

Background

Sweden is among the most cashless societies in the world: card and mobile payments dominate daily commerce to a degree that has made physical cash marginal in most stores, and that dependence is precisely what makes offline capability a policy concern. If card networks, data connections or power are disrupted, a society that has largely abandoned cash has no fallback at the checkout — a vulnerability Swedish authorities have addressed with growing urgency as part of the country's broader civil preparedness agenda, which has also seen officials advise households to keep some cash on hand.

The Riksbank, founded in 1668 and the world's oldest central bank, carries statutory responsibility for the functioning of Sweden's payment system, and it has pushed for years to ensure essential purchases — food, fuel, medicine — can be completed in a crisis. Offline card payment means the transaction is approved and stored locally at the terminal without contacting the bank in real time, then settled once connections are restored; it trades some risk controls for continuity, which is why such schemes are typically bounded by agreements between the central bank, banks and retailers of the kind the Riksbank describes.

What comes next

The operational details — which goods categories qualify, which retailers participate and the limits on offline transactions — sit in the Riksbank's fuller documentation, which is where merchants and cardholders will find what changes in practice. Watch for the Riksbank's continued payments-preparedness work, of which this agreement is one component rather than the end point.