Denmark is among the most digitalised countries in the world when it comes to payments. This high degree of digitalisation has brought significant efficiency gains, but it also makes operational resilience a key consideration, both for the payments landscape of today and of tomorrow.
An important element of resilience is having several robust payment options that rely on different infrastructures. For instance, Denmark's national card scheme, Dankort, is an alternative payment solution if another payment card scheme is disrupted.
Ulrik Nødgaard stated: ”Resilience is not built on one solution alone. It is strengthened when different payment options can complement each other.”
Offline card payments add another layer of protection. In Denmark, citizens can make offline payments with wallets and all physical payment cards from Dankort, Mastercard or Visa in more than 2,000 grocery stores. Instant payments can also strengthen resilience by relying on a different infrastructure than card-based payments.
Looking ahead, new types of digital money may become more relevant. Stablecoins and tokenised deposits may over time play a larger role in a more tokenised economy.
“In a more digital and tokenised financial system we need to preserve the anchoring role of central bank money for wholesale payments,” said Ulrik Nødgaard.
Regardless of the use of new technology, it is essential that central bank reserves remain the primary settlement asset in transactions of systemic importance. This is one of the key motivations of Danmarks Nationalbank’s joint work with the ECB on the initiatives, Pontes and Appia, to ensure that financial institutions can settle in central bank money when transacting on DLT platforms.
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