Central Bank of Sweden: „banks need to offer more instant payment services, otherwise legislation should be introduced”

To reduce external dependency, the banks need to develop new payment services based on national and European systems. Primarily, banks need to offer more instant payment services, otherwise legislation should be introduced, said Riksbank – the Central Bank of Sweden in its Payments Report 2026.

Banks should offer more services for instant payments

National payment solutions, such as Swish, are important complements to strengthen resilience and reduce external dependency in the payments market. Swedish banks have long been able to offer more instant payment services based on Swedish and European infrastructure, but virtually no bank has chosen to do so.

This means, among other things, that companies in Sweden have no way of making instant payments between one another and that a transfer via the internet bank on Friday afternoon reaches the recipient on Monday morning at the earliest.

Within one year (March 2027), the Riksbank expects the market to have started offering such services, or to have communicated a plan to do so in the near future. If the market fails to do this, the Riksbank considers that legislation should be introduced in line with that which applies to payments in euros. 

Payments between countries need to be cheaper and faster

Sweden also needs to step up its work on cheap, efficient and secure payments between currencies. The Riksbank participates in the TIPS Cross Currency project to enable instant payments between Swedish kronor, euros and Danish kronor. This project requires cooperation with the market and the Riksbank continues to encourage banks and other payment service providers to join.

Efficient mobile payments across countries and currencies can also be achieved by linking local solutions, such as Swish in Sweden, with similar solutions in other countries. The Riksbank considers that this solution would benefit Swedish consumers and companies and therefore encourages Getswish and its owners to work towards linking Swish.