Press

Sweden’s central bank will next year seek to start a pilot project to develop an electronic currency as the Nordic nation grapples with how to secure payment systems in a future without cash. The aim will be “to develop a tested and ready e‐krona” that could be introduced should the bank “wish to do so,” it said in a second report of its electronic currency review. The pilot project that could start next year will investigate how to create an e-krona that can be loaded on to an app or a card to be used for payments. The bank will also examine what legal changes would be needed to eventually introduce an e-krona that is also connected to an account at the central bank. Sweden is becoming increasingly cashless. Credit and debit cards are now by far the most common mode of payment while mobile payments have become as common as cash. - Bloomberg -