Payment News

Creating Payment Resilience in the Nordic Countries

The Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia – are reacting to risks to the payment system by working together on offline payments.

Norway and Denmark have already launched systems, and Sweden will join them in July 2026. Finland and Estonia are also working on systems.

European Retailers Want EU to Reduce Card Fees

European retailers have complained to the European Union (EU) about high international card scheme (ICS) fees in an uncompetitive market and with complex and opaque fees and rules.

Fees have risen 33.9% between 2018 and 2022 without corresponding improvements in services for EU merchants and consumers according to a 2024 report by The Brattle Group. Visa and Mastercard are estimated to process about two-thirds of card payments in the Euro zone.