Lithuania is in the advance stages of introducing an offline card payment system in case the country’s banking system or internet goes down because of a technical reason, sabotage or cyberattack.
Simonas Krėpšta, a board member of the Bank of Lithuania, said to the Lithuanian broadcasting company LRT on 9 May that the system is initially made for when the country’s military forces would mobilise in case of an imminent threat. During such time, an outside party (like Russia, although not mentioned) is expected to try to disrupt normal services, including the mobile and card payment systems that need telecom networks to communicate. The offline card payment systems could then be an alternative for cash, as not all people have sufficient cash with them or at home as a back-up.
Alternative payment system in more Nordic countries
Lithuania is not the first country looking for an offline payment alternative other than cash. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia are all in various stages of fielding such system. | © 2025 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured photo AI generated, created with Adobe Firefly