The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
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The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.
Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&%3BpublisherId=13561853
@randahl Are they running the infrastructure independent of the US? Or is it like the EU creating a payment system that still runs on AWS?
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@randahl Airplane inflight card payments have been doing this for ages. So nothing new technically as far as I can tell.
@harrysintonen @randahl We had such type of bank cards (issued by bank Snoras) in Lithuania at about 1993-2010. Then Snoras bankrupted.
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The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.
Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&%3BpublisherId=13561853
Credit card payments are not (newly) able to do this. Debit cards are now newly able to do this ("betalingskort" = "debit card"). Credit cards could (in most cases) already do this as you buy on credit. Debit cards always check the bank balance and therefore needed an internet connection. -
@harrysintonen @randahl We had such type of bank cards (issued by bank Snoras) in Lithuania at about 1993-2010. Then Snoras bankrupted.
@Jurkis Note that this is on the payment system side, rather than specific card. So any card will work.
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@randahl Airplane inflight card payments have been doing this for ages. So nothing new technically as far as I can tell.
Also for debit cards? (The OP is incorrect; this is for debit cards, not credit cards.)
There's a huge difference – credit cards can work off-line as they do not need to check the account balance, but debit cards needed an internet connection to check the amount to be deducted is available.
They very likely handle debit cards the same way: by just allowing people to spend for a week without checking the balance. It used to be possible using Danish debit cards as well but was removed for security reasons (financial security, not security security). -
The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.
Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&%3BpublisherId=13561853
@randahl The next step is getting rid of non-european data transfer of card payments.
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Also for debit cards? (The OP is incorrect; this is for debit cards, not credit cards.)
There's a huge difference – credit cards can work off-line as they do not need to check the account balance, but debit cards needed an internet connection to check the amount to be deducted is available.
They very likely handle debit cards the same way: by just allowing people to spend for a week without checking the balance. It used to be possible using Danish debit cards as well but was removed for security reasons (financial security, not security security).Sure. The same thing is coming to other nordic countries and Estonia, too. This was announced in May 2025 already. See https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nordics-estonia-plan-offline-card-payment-back-up-if-internet-cut-2025-05-07/
Sweden rolls out their system by July 2026. https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/press-and-published/notices-and-press-releases/press-releases/2025/offline-card-payments-should-be-possible-no-later-than-1-july-2026/
Riksbank also has a some explanation how it works: https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payment-preparedness/offline-payments/
It should be noted that this is more of a regulatory change. Technical aspects of offline payments have been in the systems since for a very long time.
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The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.
Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&%3BpublisherId=13561853
@randahl Great idea
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The central bank of Denmark, Nationalbanken, today announced its new offline payment system which means Danes will be able to pay digitally at the store — even when the internet is down.
This means both credit card payments and cellphone payments go through at the counter up to 7 days into an internet breakdown, because of a new technological solution which is being rolled out at grocery stores first.
Pharmacies will be added to the system later this year.
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/14873884?lang=da&%3BpublisherId=13561853
@randahl i’m troubled by the wider implications
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@Jurkis Note that this is on the payment system side, rather than specific card. So any card will work.
Not any card. Danish cards. Probably mostly a regulatory thing: Danish banks consent to the risk of 7 days of outstanding payments on debit cards, but foreign banks do not. -
Not any card. Danish cards. Probably mostly a regulatory thing: Danish banks consent to the risk of 7 days of outstanding payments on debit cards, but foreign banks do not.
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Also for debit cards? (The OP is incorrect; this is for debit cards, not credit cards.)
There's a huge difference – credit cards can work off-line as they do not need to check the account balance, but debit cards needed an internet connection to check the amount to be deducted is available.
They very likely handle debit cards the same way: by just allowing people to spend for a week without checking the balance. It used to be possible using Danish debit cards as well but was removed for security reasons (financial security, not security security).@michael @harrysintonen @randahl
Does this mean the system has a copy of everyone's balance, or at least balance range? Or are they just taking the risk that someone with a very low debit balance could spend money they don't have for a week?
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@michael @harrysintonen @randahl
Does this mean the system has a copy of everyone's balance, or at least balance range? Or are they just taking the risk that someone with a very low debit balance could spend money they don't have for a week?
@cptbutton AFAIK it's a risk based system. There likely is a cap to the amount you can pay, too. Note that you only use it when the network is down, which reduces the risk of abuse significantly.
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