The initiative aims to make digital payments more resilient by allowing certain transactions to be processed even when an internet connection is unavailable, addressing a key limitation of today’s increasingly cashless economy.
From February 2027, all newly issued Mastercard cards in Europe will be enabled for offline payments, while all new and replacement payment terminals will be required to support the technology by May 2027. During an outage, customers will be able to insert their cards and enter their PINs to pay for essential purchases at supermarkets, grocery stores, petrol stations and pharmacies, as well as at transport and ticket machines.
The system works by securely storing predefined spending limits on the card’s chip, allowing a terminal to approve eligible transactions without connecting to the payment network. The maximum permitted amount will be €200 per transaction, although the cardholder’s bank will determine the applicable limit. Once connectivity is restored, the transaction will be sent for processing and settlement.
The initiative follows major disruptions that exposed the vulnerability of digital payments, including the widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal in April 2025, which left an estimated 55 million people temporarily unable to make digital payments. Mastercard has already introduced offline payments in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Latvia, and the wider rollout is intended to strengthen the resilience of Europe’s payment infrastructure and help consumers access essential goods and services during unexpected outages.
