Danmarks Nationalbank has launched a project to build a Dormant Emergency Bank as a backup against major cyberattacks in Denmark.
The initiative forms part of a broader effort to preserve continuity of card payments, salary transfers, and money transfers during extreme disruption scenarios.
The DEB proposal is central to Danmarks Nationalbank's Emergency Preparedness for Critical Financial Sector Activities in Extreme Scenarios (EP-CFSA-ES) plan, announced in December 2025. Under the plan, DEB would operate as a decentralised emergency bank, prioritised to protect Denmark's payment systems against a prolonged, AI-driven cyberattack.
The threat scenario outlined in the EP-CFSA-ES plan covers attacks that immobilise banks' IT infrastructure for an extended period, a situation that could otherwise prevent consumers and businesses from carrying out routine banking transactions. According to a Danmarks Nationalbank official, the DEB platform would activate in such a scenario so that Danish businesses and society could continue to function until the threat is resolved.
Card payment continuity during outages
According to the announcement, the EP-CFSA-ES plan also includes a Card Payment Contingency (CPC) facility, designed to let high street retailers continue trading during cyber-related IT outages. Under CPC, consumers would be able to pay using physical cards and mobile wallets, including Vipps, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Dankort, Mastercard, and Visa, for up to seven days during an outage.
The CPC system is built to let store payment terminals process and store transactions offline, with payments settling automatically once terminals reconnect to customer banks. A Danmarks Nationalbank official said the technical solution addresses the main issues associated with a significant IT outage. In addition, the CPC facility is currently being piloted nationwide and is expected to be fully operational at grocery chains and pharmacies by the end of 2026.
The DEB and CPC initiatives reflect a broader shift among central banks toward building offline contingency layers for national payment infrastructure, as the scale and sophistication of cyber threats facing the banking sector continue to evolve. For Denmark, the approach signals an effort to decouple continuity of essential payment functions, cards, salaries, and transfers, from the availability of any single bank's IT systems during a severe incident.
