The Riksbank publicly criticised Sweden's instant payment landscape in its 2025 Payments Report, stating that Sweden lags behind the rest of the Nordics in instant payment services. Despite Swish's popularity - 9 million users and over 345,000 businesses - it remains the only digital instant payment option in the Swedish market.
Structural Concern
The Riksbank enabled additional services via RIX-INST (Sweden's instant settlement system) in autumn 2024, but adoption by commercial banks has been minimal. The central bank noted that Sweden's dependence on a single instant payment provider creates concentration risk and limits innovation - a notable contrast with markets like the UK, where multiple instant payment services compete.
Non-Bank Access
Amendments to Swedish financial market law took effect on April 9, 2025, enabling payment institutions and electronic money institutions to participate in settlement systems like RIX for the first time. This could enable non-bank providers to build competing instant payment services, though none had launched by year-end 2025.
E-Krona Status
The Riksbank confirmed that no decision to issue an e-krona has been taken. The technical pilot concluded with Phase 4 (offline payments testing) in 2024. The Riksbank is closely monitoring the ECB's digital euro, noting that a digital euro circulating in Sweden could increase the need for an e-krona to protect the Swedish krona's role in the domestic payment system.
What This Means
The Riksbank's public criticism is unusual and signals regulatory pressure for Swedish banks to invest in instant payment infrastructure beyond Swish. The opening of RIX to non-banks could catalyse competition, but the window between regulatory permission and market entry remains wide. Sweden's position as one of the world's most cashless societies makes its single-provider instant payment dependency particularly notable.