Few countries in the world have turned their backs on cash with so much conviction as Sweden did in its day. For years it was the great global laboratory of digital money and a place where, paying in cash, It was almost a strange gesture. In the Nordic country, it is common to find businesses where “card only” signs are read without anyone protesting.
Its financial system seemed to have resolved the future of payments once and for all. Now, that same country has just taken a turn that no one expected: recommending that its citizens save a certain amount of cash in case all their digital payments system collapses.
From inventing banknotes to almost eliminating them. Sweden has a unique history with paper money. In 1661 it was the first country in Europe in introducing billsand it was also where the Riksbank, the central bank, was born oldest in the world. That pioneering vocation led her, centuries later, to lead the race towards a completely cashless economy.
The numbers reflected it clearly: if in 2010 39% of Swedes said they had paid their last purchase in cash, in 2020 that percentage had fallen up to 9%. According to the Riksbank itself, currently only one in ten Purchases in Swedish stores are made with physical money. Anders Ohlsson, CEO of Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank, summed it up like this: “I don’t think right now people in Sweden know what the different currencies are like.”
A central bank that asks you to keep banknotes at home. The Riksbank published some recommendations which were surprising coming from one of the most digitalized financial systems on the planet. The Swedish central bank asked all households in the country to keep at least 1,000 Swedish crowns in cash for each adult (just over 90 euros at the exchange rate), as a cash reserve for possible emergencies.
“This amount should be considered as a reference and is intended to cover one week of essential purchases. Households may need more or less cash on hand, depending on the number of people in the household or their specific needs. Whenever possible, households are recommended to keep cash in various denominations,” the Swedish banking entity says in its statement.
Too digital to be invulnerable. The underlying reason for making this peculiar call is not nostalgic but strategic. An economy that depends almost entirely on digital payments is also an economy exposed to power outages, cyberattacks or geopolitical tensions. The Visa and Mastercard networks, on which a large part of the Swedish payment system is based, are of American origin, which adds an extra layer of vulnerability in an increasingly uncertain international context.
The Riksbank itself puts it bluntly in its statement: “Access to different payment methods improves people’s ability to make payments in the event of temporary disruptions, crises and, in the worst case, war.” It is not an unfounded threat. In recent months, several European countries have reviewed the resilience of your critical infrastructures before him security deterioration and the increase in uncertainty on the continent.
Diversify so as not to depend on a single system. Beyond cash, the Riksbank’s warning to citizens is committed to a more diversified payment strategy. He recommends having access to at least two cards from different networks (a Visa and a Mastercard, for example) so that, if the systems of one of them fail, payments can be made with the other. It also advises having access to mobile payment services like swishthe popular Swedish application that operates on a different infrastructure than traditional bank cards.
For whom use Apple Pay either Google Paythe Swedish central bank reminds that it is advisable to always have the physical card on hand and know the PIN, since the physical chip allows payments to be made even without an internet connection. All of this advice will be developed in more detail in the Riksbank’s 2026 Payments Report, due on March 12. Sweden, which for years led the way to paperless money, is now a reminder that no system is foolproof.
Image | Unsplash (Tobias Flyckt, Emil Kalibradov)
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