The Nordic countries are in the middle of the most significant payment infrastructure restructuring in a generation. The pan-Nordic P27 initiative has been scaled back, Sweden's Bankgirot is being sunset, Norway is connecting to the Eurosystem's TIPS platform, and the Riksbank has publicly warned that Sweden is falling behind its neighbours. For payment professionals with Nordic exposure, understanding these moving pieces is critical.
P27: From Pan-Nordic Vision to Swedish Infrastructure Project
P27 Nordic Payments was founded in 2017 by six of the region's largest banks - Nordea, SEB, Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Danske Bank, and OP Financial Group - with an ambitious goal: a single clearing platform enabling real-time, multi-currency payments across Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
In 2020, P27 acquired Bankgirot, the Swedish clearing house that also operated Swish's clearing infrastructure. The plan was to replace domestic clearing systems across the Nordics with a single ISO 20022-native platform.
The pivot: In April 2023, P27 suspended the pan-Nordic platform. The cross-border, multi-currency vision proved too complex to deliver on schedule. Instead, P27 refocused exclusively on modernising Swedish payment infrastructure.
What happened: Three fundamental obstacles undermined the original scope:
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Regulatory divergence: Sweden, Denmark, and Norway operate different currencies with different central banks and different regulatory frameworks. Finland, as a Eurozone member, already clears through SEPA and TARGET. Harmonising clearing rules across four jurisdictions was harder than anticipated.
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Competitive dynamics: National central banks had parallel modernisation efforts underway. Norges Bank pursued TIPS independently. Danmarks Nationalbank had already migrated the DKK onto TARGET. Finland was already on SEPA Instant.
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Technical complexity: Building a multi-currency clearing system that could handle SEK, NOK, DKK, and EUR in real-time required solving currency settlement, FX risk, and liquidity management problems simultaneously.
Bankgirot Sunset: End of an Era
Bankgirot has operated Sweden's retail clearing infrastructure since 1959. It clears credit transfers, direct debits, salary payments, and - critically - provides the clearing layer for Swish, the mobile payment platform used by 85% of Sweden's population.
The timeline: Bankgirot's traditional batch clearing services will be phased out by the end of 2026. The P27 joint project with Bankgirot is responsible for building replacement infrastructure that is ISO 20022-native and capable of supporting both batch and instant payment clearing.
What practitioners should know: This is not a simple technology migration. The Bankgirot sunset means Sweden needs new clearing infrastructure for: Swish (8.5M+ users, effectively Sweden's national P2P system) Salary payments (batch credit transfers) Direct debits (autogiro) Corporate payments
The replacement must be ISO 20022-native, support instant payments, and maintain backward compatibility for the batch payment types that millions of Swedish businesses and consumers rely on daily.
Norway Joins TIPS: The Eurosystem Path
In November 2024, Norges Bank signed an agreement with the ECB to join TIPS (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement) for Norwegian krone settlements. This makes Norway the second non-euro currency to connect to TARGET services, following Denmark's DKK migration to T2 in April 2025.
Timeline: NBO INST - the new instant payment service - is planned for the first half of 2028. It will enable Norwegian participants to settle instant payments in NOK via the Eurosystem's TIPS platform, 24/7 in central bank money.
ISO 20022 milestone: In March 2025, Norges Bank completed the migration to ISO 20022 for gross payments in NBO. This was coordinated simultaneously with Denmark and Sweden, ensuring messaging standard alignment across all three Scandinavian settlement systems.
What this means: Norway's decision to join TIPS rather than build a standalone Norwegian instant payment clearing system is strategically significant. It means: Norwegian instant payments will settle in central bank money (via TIPS) The technical platform will be maintained by the Eurosystem, reducing operational risk Future interoperability with SEPA Instant participants becomes structurally easier Norges Bank is also in formal dialogue with the ECB about potential NBO participation in T2 for RTGS settlement
The Riksbank's Warning: Sweden Lags Behind
In its Payments Report 2025, the Riksbank explicitly warned that Sweden is falling behind its Nordic peers in instant payment services. Despite processing around 1 billion instant payments per year through Swish, the central bank identified significant gaps:
Channel availability: Many Swedish payment channels do not support instant settlement. Online banking transfers, merchant refunds, and corporate payments often still use batch processing. Comparison with neighbours: Denmark and Norway either have or are building infrastructure that supports instant settlement across a broader range of payment types. Target deadline: The Riksbank has convened stakeholders to establish solutions by 1 July 2026.
This is notable because Sweden, via Swish, has one of the world's highest per-capita instant payment adoption rates. The Riksbank's concern is not about P2P - it is about extending instant capabilities to the full range of payment types.
The Divergent Nordic Paths
What emerges is four distinctly different infrastructure strategies:
| Country | RTGS | Instant Payment Path | ISO 20022 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | RIX | P27/Bankgirot successor (domestic) | Migrated (March 2025) | Transitioning |
| Norway | NBO | TIPS via Eurosystem (2028) | Migrated (March 2025) | Building |
| Denmark | Kronos2 | DKK on TARGET/TIPS (live 2025) | Native since Kronos2 launch | Operational |
| Finland | T2 (Eurozone) | SEPA Instant/TIPS | Native (Eurozone) | Operational |
Denmark and Finland have resolved their instant payment infrastructure questions by connecting to the Eurosystem. Norway is following the same path. Sweden is the outlier - building domestically while managing the Bankgirot sunset.
What Payment Professionals Should Watch
By end of 2026: Bankgirot traditional clearing services wind down. The replacement infrastructure must be operational. This is the single highest-risk deadline in Nordic payments.
By mid-2028: Norway's NBO INST goes live on TIPS, completing the Scandinavian instant payment picture.
The open question: Will Sweden eventually connect to TIPS as well, or will the P27 successor infrastructure remain a standalone Swedish system? The Riksbank has not indicated a preference, but the pattern of its neighbours - all choosing the Eurosystem - creates gravitational pull.
For practitioners, the immediate implication is that Nordic payment infrastructure is not converging as P27 originally envisioned. Instead, three of four countries are converging on the Eurosystem, while Sweden pursues its own path. Integration strategies should account for this divergence.
Sources: Sveriges Riksbank - Sweden Lags Behind in Instant Payment Services (October 2025); Sveriges Riksbank - Payments Report 2025; Norges Bank - TIPS Agreement Signed (November 2024); ECB - Norway Joins TIPS (November 2024); Norges Bank - Financial Infrastructure Report 2025; Sveriges Riksbank - Swedish Payments Infrastructure Priorities (2024).