Central Bank of Iceland in final stages of preparing tender for interbank payment network

Iceland’s central bank is in the final stages of preparing a tender for a domestic account-to-account payment network intended to reduce reliance on global card schemes, with users approving merchant payment requests in their bank apps. Tómas Brynjólfsson, the bank’s deputy governor for financial stability, said at the Money Live Nordic Banking event in Copenhagen on October 30 that payment sovereignty for a small, digital economy like Iceland’s does not mean self-sufficiency, but rather maintaining a domestic fallback route while continuing to use international networks. The bank disclosed the tender preparation in a statement. The initiative matters because it would give Iceland a homegrown alternative if cross-border card rails fail. Next, watch the tender timeline and which infrastructure providers bid.