The governor of the Central Bank of Sweden comments our payment systems.
Here’s an AI translation of the text into English:
“Given the geopolitical situation, it is important to create European systems in a number of areas. This is according to Riksbank Governor Erik Thedéen in an interview with Ekot’s Saturday program, where he emphasizes that Sweden’s payment systems should not be as dependent on the USA as they have been. As an example, he points out that the two dominant credit card issuers, Mastercard and Visa, are American. ‘It is probably wise to consider that we should also have European or Swedish systems that function in case the American ones do not,’ he says. According to the central bank governor, Swish is ‘a certain complement.’ He also highlights that other countries, such as Denmark, have their own national credit cards.”
It hasn’t been rolled out to brick and mortar yet. This is planned in Q4 2026. ( And yes: they have planned much lower fees than visa/MasterCard and simpler P.O.S setups where existing hardware could be used).
The EPI (European Payment Initiative , a grouping of 16 European banks and financial institutions) is deliberately doing a slow launch though the tech behind it is all set up.
They don’t want to F-up with people’s money.