The largest retail chains in Estonia took part in a crisis exercise on Wednesday morning organised by Eesti Pank during which communications were cut off to six shops in Estonia for an hour. People were only able to make card payments during the interruption using their physical bank card and their PIN code.

The largest commercial banks have been working together with Eesti Pank and retailers on offline card payments for some time now. This is a solution that allows people in Estonia to make purchases using bank cards within certain limits and at a fixed network of shops even if the usual network connections and card payments are not working.

Selver, Coop, Grossi Toidukaubad, Maxima, Rimi and Lidl, the largest supermarket chains in Estonia, took part in the offline card payment exercise, which was held as part of the national exercise ILVES 2026. The exercise gave the supermarket chains confidence that offline card payments work in principle, but a few minor improvements were needed so that the solution intended for a crisis would function smoothly.

Nele Peil, head of the Estonian Traders Association, said that the exercise showed that the offline payment solution developed in cooperation with the ecosystem of providers of payment services works under real conditions out in the field and gave merchants the confidence that they were ready to cope. “The exercise was a success for the traders, especially because their clients showed understanding and were interested in coming to test out their own cards. The staff working in the shops also succeeded very well in explaining what was happening. Although this confirmed that the technical solutions work securely in ordinary tills and self-service checkouts, the focus moving forward must be on technical improvements to make the service operate more smoothly”, she said.

The exercise revealed that the biggest obstacle while communications were down occurred when people were only able to make contactless payments because they had not brought their physical bank card or any cash with them. “Only a few people were unable to make their purchases in the shops during the hour that the exercise ran for. These were mostly young people who did not have their bank card on them. The banks have created an important new backup solution for card payments, but now we need to talk more to people about how a physical bank card and PIN code have the same value as cash if there is an interruption to card payments. Of course it is more convenient to carry only a telephone or smartwatch when you go out, but we would still say you must remember that contactless payments cannot be made if access to the internet is interrupted or there is some other problem with card payments”, said Rainer Olt, head of the Payment and Settlement Systems Department of Eesti Pank.

He explained that the exercise was very useful, because it gave the confidence that offline card payments work and that staff in shops are able to look after their customers, but at the same time the exercise revealed issues that need to be dealt with. “Transactions were made faster in some shops and more slowly in others. This is useful for the shops to know as they can work on it with their technical partners. We also discussed whether in such a situation the card payment terminals and self-service checkouts of the shops could recommend to people that they enter their bank card and PIN code, in place of the message they currently receive that the payment has failed. I believe that this experience will encourage the retailers, and also in future pharmacies, to develop the offline card payment solution more broadly in future across all of their outlets”, he added.

The broader aim of offline card payments is to make it possible for residents of Estonia to buy essential goods, principally food, medicines and fuel, even in an emergency when card payments are interrupted. Such an interruption could occur if internet connections were cut, there was a fault in information systems, or a cyber attack was launched against payment systems.

The offline card payment crisis exercise that was held on Wednesday was part of the broader national defence exercise ILVES 2026. ILVES 2026 is one of the largest crisis exercises that has been run in Estonia in recent years.

BACKGROUND

How to be better prepared against an interruption to payments

12. Keep some cash in your wallet. You can always use cash to pay, even if card payments aren’t working.
13. Keep a week’s worth of cash at home. Each family could keep enough cash to cover their most essential spending for a week.
14. Have your physical bank card available to use and remember your PIN code. If you have forgotten your PIN code, you can find it from your banking app if your bank offers that option. Each family could be able to use cards from at least two different banks.
15. If you mainly pay using your mobile phone or a contactless device, use your physical bank card with the PIN code from time to time as well for payments. Then you can be certain that your card works and that you can use it to make some limited purchases from a fixed network of shops even if the usual network connections and card payments are not working.

For further information:
Viljar Rääsk
Head of Communications
Eesti Pank
668 0745, 527 5055
Email: [email protected]
Press enquiries: [email protected]