Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia are introducing offline card payment systems in case of internet outages, including sabotage, Tuomas Valimaki, a member of the Bank of Finland’s board of directors, told Reuters on Wednesday, the 7th of April.
The plan comes after several unexplained underwater cable breaches in the Baltic Sea region in recent years, with Western intelligence agencies accusing Russia of various acts of sabotage, which the Kremlin denies.
Bank of Finland spokesman Valimaki told Reuters that offline card payment systems were necessary because the risk of major disruptions had increased.
“The geopolitical situation in the world has changed,” he said. “There is a war going on in Europe and there are all kinds of hybrid influences and threats around this war, which can be related to disruption or interruption of communications,” he added, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
HE POINTED OUT THAT PAYMENTS ARE A POTENTIAL TARGET AS THEY ARE CRUCIAL TO EVERYDAY LIFE.
According to the Central Bank, only 10% of the Finnish population uses cash as their primary form of payment, making the country heavily dependent on card payments.
Valimaki explained that card payments depend on data connections, so countries are vulnerable if the connection is interrupted. “Finland needs to be prepared for disruptions,” he said, adding that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia are also introducing offline card payments and other countries are likely to join in.
Valimaki said plans were still being drawn up, but offline payments could be made using machines that securely store payment data and send it later when the internet is available again.
Sweden’s central bank told Reuters it hoped to have a system in place by the 1st of July 2026 that would allow Swedes to make offline card payments to buy essentials if disruptions lasted up to seven days.
The central banks of Norway and Denmark said that they have already launched offline electronic payment systems, which they are continuing to develop. The Estonian central bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Nordea, the Nordic region’s largest bank, was hit by a major cyber attack that lasted several weeks and sometimes prevented customers from using their online accounts.
THE WHOLE OF EUROPE SHOULD REDUCE ITS DEPENDENCE ON CARD PAYMENTS, WHICH CURRENTLY RELY HEAVILY ON THE US VISA AND MASTERCARD COMPANIES, SAID VALIMAKI.
“We cannot rule out that one night someone on the Truth Social will decide to use payments as an influence tactic,” he said. Truth Social is the social network where US President Donald Trump posts his thoughts.
To offer an alternative, Finland will introduce a national system for instant payments in a few years, while consumers will be able to make offline payments next year, Valimaki said.
“We may think we have a choice, for example paying with a debit or credit card or Apple Pay, but all these options work through the infrastructure of Visa and Mastercard,” he said, calling for a diversification of payments.
In a separate speech in Helsinki, Christian-Marc Lilflander, head of NATO’s Defence Planning Division, said finance ministers should be more involved in security discussions to better prepare for threats in the financial services sector.
The European Central Bank plans to introduce a digital euro for instant payments, but this could take several years, Valimaki said.
In another measure to safeguard financial security, Finland is also developing a system of national reserve bank accounts that will allow access to savings even if a bank is unable to operate.