How long does an international payment take in the Nordics?

From instant transfers to multi-day delays, cross-border payment times in the Nordics explained.

The Nordic countries are small yet pack an economic punch. The combined GDP of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden is roughly equivalent to Canada at around $1.9-2.2 trillion, putting it just outside the 10 largest economies worldwide.

With small addressable domestic markets, Nordic entrepreneurs are used to starting companies from scratch and building them for global expansion. Cue the impressive number of home-grown billion-dollar unicorn companies, including Flatpay, iZettle, Legora, Lovable, Klarna, Spotify and more.

Europe is a significant trading partner for the Nordics, accounting for more than half of all exports and imports. Meanwhile, cross-border trade with other Nordic countries accounts for a further 20% according to the Nordic Statistics database.

This makes fast, cost-effective, accessible, transparent cross-border payments essential for global competitiveness and growth. We examine the current state of pay for international transfers in the Nordics.

Understanding cross-border payment times in the Nordics

International payments to and from the Nordics can take anything from a few minutes up to 3-5 business days. It depends on various factors, including the countries, currencies, transfer amount and payment methods involved.

Countries

The destination or recipient’s country influences the payment method and therefore the speed of a cross-border transfer.

• International payments to or within the EEA usually arrive instantly with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, or in one working day using a regular SEPA payment scheme.
• International payments outside the EEA could take anything between one and five working days using the Swift payment network.
• International payments to or within the Nordic region could arrive in as little as seconds using cards or same day using bank transfers.

Currencies

Five different currencies are used across the Nordic region. So, nearly every time consumers or businesses send or receive payments, some type of currency conversion applies.

The only exception is payments between Finland and Europe denominated in euro, via SEPA payment schemes. As the euro is the Finnish national currency, banks must not charge the sender any more for a cross-border transaction in euro than they would for a domestic one.

Generally, when making an international bank transfer, there are three main options:

1. Transfer funds in the recipient’s currency

If the sender chooses to transfer funds in the recipient’s currency, the sender’s bank would use its own exchange rate to calculate the cost in the sender’s currency and add a fee.

The payee receives the amount in their own currency, which corresponds to what the payer has sent. However, the recipient’s bank may charge a processing or inward remittance to deposit the funds into their account.

2. Transfer funds in euro

If the sender chooses to transfer funds in euro, the sender’s bank may not be able to charge a fee, depending on SEPA regulations.

The recipient’s bank then receives the funds in euro and converts it into the local currency. However, the payer may not know in advance exactly how much the recipient will receive. They have no line of sight into any currency conversion and/or inward remittance fees the recipient’s bank would charge.

3. Transfer funds in the sender’s currency

If the sender chooses to transfer funds in their own currency, they may not have to pay a currency conversion fee.

However, they may not know in advance exactly how much the recipient will receive, as they don’t know the types of fees the recipient’s bank would charge their customer, for example a FX, processing or inward remittance fee.

The complexity around currencies makes for a lack of transparency around costs and cost-effectiveness.

Transfer amount

When it comes to bank transfers, service providers have different business and pricing models. Some may charge a premium for faster payments.

Some may charge a flat-rate fee irrespective of the transaction amount. This would make transferring smaller amounts more costly if the fixed fees were a larger proportion of the total amount.

Others operate tiered pricing. Or ad valorem pricing where fees are calculated as a percentage of the transaction amount.

Again, the costs of cross-border payments are not always clear or easy to compare.

Payment methods

There are different ways to make international account-to-account payments across the Nordics using either bank or card rails. The main ones are as follows:

1. Bank transfers

Depending on the destination country, international credit transfers can take anything between seconds (SEPA Instant Credit Transfer) and up to five days (Swift).

2. Card

Retail and person-to-person payments via card are authorized in real time. However, clearing and settlement of funds between payment service providers (PSPs) behind the scenes typically take longer. That’s why businesses may wait 3-5 days for card payments to be credited to their account.

International card payments are cleared through Visa’s and Mastercard’s own networks and settled in accounts held with commercial banks. The speed of settlement depends on the countries where the cardholder’s issuer and merchant’s acquirer are based.

3. Mobile

Domestic, pan-regional and international mobile payment options are widely available in the Nordics. They include MobilePay in Denmark, Vipps in Norway and Swish in Sweden.

Vipps and MobilePay merged in 2022 and since 2024 has offered instant payments between Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden via an underlying card account.

Mobile payment is also possible via international options, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, which integrate cards into mobile phones. Because they rely on access to the device hardware and operating system, the X Pays can be used anywhere that Visa or Mastercard is accepted, including cross-border. Settlement speed depends on the transfer times of the underlying bank or card rails.

Recent and current payment initiatives in the Nordics

Payments between countries need to be cheaper, faster, more accessible and more transparent, in line with the G20 targets, according to the Swedish central bank (Riksbank).

Currently, large foreign currency conversion fees for card payments and high transaction-specific fixed fees for credit transfers mean that the total costs end users pay for cross-border payments are significantly above the G20 targets, writes the Riksbank.

Transfers within the Nordics are not as fast and efficient as between the Nordics and the euro area. As such the Riksbank will initiate “a dialogue with the market” to bring parity to payments in the Nordic region in Nordic currencies, so they cost the same as domestic transfers.

Elsewhere, work on modernizing the infrastructure for bank transfers, including harmonizing message standards, has been ongoing for some years. As have plans to extend the ability to pay offline with cards. In view of geographical and geopolitical threats, this strengthens the resilience and utility of payment systems, ensuring people can always pay and be paid.