After a major blackout disrupted payment services across Spain and Portugal in 2025, affecting more than 50 million payment outlets, Mastercard is introducing new technical requirements to keep payments running during telecommunications or power outages across Europe.
The new protocol covers both cards and payment terminals. Beginning in February 2027, every newly issued Mastercard card in the EU will include offline functionality in its EMV chip. In May, hardware updates will follow, enabling all new and replacement point-of-sale terminals to accept offline transactions.
Mastercard says the changes will allow customers to complete chip-and-PIN purchases for essential goods during outages at locations such as supermarkets, service stations, and pharmacies. Transactions will be capped at €200, although individual issuing banks can set their own limits.
The Card Takes Over
Normally, a payment terminal sends transaction data to the customer’s bank, which checks the account, spending limits, and potential fraud before approving or declining the payment within seconds. When internet connectivity or power fails, that process may no longer be possible.
With offline payments, the card’s chip can make the decision itself. Before an outage, the issuing bank stores its rules and spending limits on the chip, allowing it to approve or decline transactions without connecting to the bank.
Under the EMV standard used by modern chip cards, the chip can already track offline transactions and the total amount spent since its last connection to the bank. Once a preset threshold is reached, the card requires an online check before additional payments can proceed.
Testing Across Europe
Mastercard says its offline payment system has already been deployed and tested in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia. When a recent storm disrupted electricity in Latvia, card payments continued at businesses operating on backup generators.
The system has also been tested against connectivity failures. A technical glitch isolated terminals from the broader payment network in Denmark earlier this year, but Mastercard enabled many transactions to continue at outlets deemed essential.
The push for greater payment resilience gained urgency after the blackout in Spain and Portugal. Although the outage lasted only a few hours, it struck during the business day.
Other networks and European governments have also been developing offline payment procedures in response to geopolitical threats and technological disruptions. Last year, Nordic countries coordinated plans for offline card payments following Russian targeting of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region.
