Payments in Sweden 2020

Are payments in Sweden efficient?

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All payments presuppose an underlying infrastructure

Published: 29 October 2020

For cash to be used in society, an underlying infrastructure is required in the form of ATMs, service boxes for daily takings, transport vans and secure premises for the storage of cash, for example. When paper-based credit transfers are used, functioning post management and a data input centre to translate the forms to digital information are needed. Digital payments require IT platforms where the payment information can be processed. To process a card payment, the customer’s bank must exchange information with the shop’s bank and, when paying via e-invoice, the invoice information must be transferred to the customer's bank and reported to the customer. All of this infrastructure entails costs of various kinds.