Sweden

Riksbanken wants e-krona preparations started now

Digital krona pitched as war preparedness with earliest introduction five years away, central bank has not yet decided it wants one

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Riksbanken vill ta nytt tag med e-krona – tar minst fem år att införa Riksbanken vill ta nytt tag med e-krona – tar minst fem år att införa borskollen.se

Riksbanken wants preparations for a digital krona started now. In a submission to the Riksdag's finance committee on 7 October, the central bank wrote that the earliest Sweden could have an e-krona is five years away — five years that do not include the time the legislative changes themselves will take, for which Riksbanken wants a public inquiry appointed.

The stated causes are three: a sharply deteriorated geopolitical situation, the growing influence of stablecoins, and the ECB's digital euro, which pilots in the second half of 2027 and launches broadly in 2029. The payment market, Riksbanken writes, "has a central role for upholding Sweden's preparedness and sovereignty," and the question of a digital krona should be seen in light of the deteriorated security situation. A digital krona could enable payments without an internet connection — highlighted as central in crisis and war, and a property banknotes have always had.

The ECB supplies the deadline. "Future payment solutions, infrastructure and legislation in the EU will be based on there being a digital euro," Riksbanken warns, and without a corresponding solution in Sweden, based on the Swedish currency, the competitiveness of the Swedish payment system risks weakening in the long term.

What an e-krona would add is money issued by the central bank itself. Today's digital payments move bank deposits between private systems; the state's own money exists as notes and coins. And the detail that frames the whole request: Riksbanken has not taken a position on whether Sweden should introduce an e-krona at all. That decision belongs to the Riksdag, which is now asked to start a five-year construction the central bank has not committed to wanting.

The margin, the submission notes, is tight — only if an inquiry is appointed immediately is there a theoretical possibility that Sweden is ready when the digital euro broadens in 2029. The earliest Sweden can have a digital krona is five years from now. The five years have not started.