Mastercard expands offline payments across Europe

Mastercard will require newly issued cards and new and replacement payment terminals across Europe to support offline payments in 2027, expanding capabilities intended to keep essential purchases moving during power and network outages.

Announced Oct. 7, the requirements take effect in February 2027 for newly issued Mastercard cards and May 2027 for new and replacement terminals. The rollout follows coordination with partners, national governments, regulators and central banks, Mastercard stated.

The company cited the April 2025 blackout in Spain and Portugal, when an estimated 55 million people were suddenly unable to make digital payments.

“When the power or network goes down, people still need to buy food, fuel and medicine,” said Brice van de Walle, Mastercard’s executive vice president, Core Payments. “We’ve seen that offline payments can make a real difference. By expanding this technology across Europe, we can help people keep paying for the things they need, even when the unexpected happens.”

Keeping essential purchases moving

Offline payments work by storing spending limits on a card’s chip. When a terminal loses connectivity, a chip-and-PIN transaction can be approved locally, up to a bank-set limit of €200 per transaction. The payment is submitted for clearing after the connection returns.

Mastercard said the capability will support purchases at supermarkets, grocery stores, service stations and pharmacies, as well as travel and ticket machines.

The company has already implemented offline payments in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia. During a recent storm in Latvia, shops powered by local generators continued accepting card payments. Offline functionality addresses lost connectivity; terminals still require power.

During a technical outage in Denmark this spring, Mastercard’s crisis procedures also enabled many transactions to continue at critical merchants, the company reported.

Processing implications

The expansion has implications beyond cards and terminals, according to Radi El Haj, CEO of RS2. Issuers must establish offline spending parameters and determine acceptable risk exposure in advance, he stated. “When connectivity returns, those payments still have to be cleared, settled and reconciled, often in a sudden surge,” he said.

Haj added that banks need systems capable of accounting for transactions authorized during outages and absorbing the subsequent backlog “Acquirers face the same test on the merchant side, as terminal estates are refreshed and delayed transactions flow through to settlement," he said.

Mastercard stated the European expansion builds on investments over the past 12 months in local infrastructure and cybersecurity to strengthen payment network resilience.

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