Fintech players can bank on the Nordic countries' cashless society

In Sweden retailers are no longer obliged to accept cash payments

Tom Holgersson

Money, money, money really must be funny," sang ABBA, one of Sweden's most iconic exports back in the 1970s. These days, what us Scandinavians find most peculiar in financial matters is the need to carry cash when venturing outside the Nordics.

Europe's first modern banknotes were issued by the Bank of Stockholm back in 1661. Now the country seems set to be the first in Europe to dispense with banknotes. Observers are predicting that, for all practical purposes, Sweden will be a cashless society within five years.