Danmarks Nationalbank regularly provides its perspectives on economic and financial matters at various events and meetings. Speeches and presentations provide insight into Danmarks Nationalbank’s contribution to the event or meeting in question.

Financial stability and financial risks

Governor Ulrik Nødgaard's presentation at PSD3 & Open Banking: resilient payments from Danmarks Nationalbank's point of view

A more challenging threat landscape requires a greater focus on resilience and stronger contingency planning. In the area of payments, having multiple independent payment solutions available in shops enhances resilience, while robust contingency measuresarrangements for the financial sector’s critical functions are also essential. These were the key messages delivered by Governor Ulrik Nødgaard at PSD3 & Open Banking on 31 August 2026.


In recent years, the overall threat landscape facing Denmark has become more severe. Denmark is a highly digitalised society, and the financial sector faces a range of threats, including cyberattacks and hybrid incidents. This requires a strong focus on resilience and enhanced preparedness, Ulrik Nødgaard explained.

Among other points, Ulrik Nødgaard highlighted that Dankort and instant payments contribute to resilience in the payments ecosystem, as one solution can be used if the other fails. In addition, the Danish Payments Council has worked to ensure that offline card payments can be made with all cards issued under Dankort, Mastercard and Visa in supermarkets and pharmacies.

Danmarks Nationalbank recommends contingency measures for critical functions

The financial sector plays a vital role in society. To ensure that the sector’s critical functions can continue even during a prolonged outage, Danmarks Nationalbank recommends establishing contingency measures capable of handling severe and long-lasting disruptions.

The objective is to create a safety net that enables households and businesses to continue receiving salaries, paying bills and accessing their accounts, even in situations where a key financial sector participant is unavailable for an extended period.

Danmarks Nationalbank’s recommendations are broad in scope and cover both the owners of payment solutions and financial infrastructure, as well as banks. Work to strengthen contingency measures is already underway. For banks, the focus is on identifying and prioritising the most critical activities to ensure business continuity during a prolonged outage. This work can be built upon to ensure that the most socially critical customer-facing activities remain operational even during severe incidents, Ulrik Nødgaard explained.