The financial infrastructure

Payment cards, online banking and mobile payment solutions have become fixed elements of daily life in Denmark.

Financial institutions are continuously working on developing an efficient payment management system in Denmark that makes the creation of forward-looking solutions and products for the benefit of customers possible.

The Clearing Systems
Three systems are used to settle retail payments in DKK in Denmark. Finance Denmark is responsible for the system on behalf of the financial sector. The system is operated by Nets. The clearings are implemented by collaboration between Finance Denmark as system owner, Nets as operator, five data processing centres that handle the financial institution’s IT support of the clearings and e-nettet as the banking sector’s management company. The Central Bank of Denmark is a monitoring authority and provides settlement systems in the form of Kronos for the clearings.

The systems differentiate themselves with different settlement times and they handle different payment solutions. The systems are:

Sum Clearing
Intraday Clearing
Express Clearing

In addition to the three systems for handling DKK, Denmark also participates in the TARGET cooperation which is the European Central Bank’s system for handling payments in EUR between EU countries.

Many payment solutions available in Denmark are settled in Sum Clearing, including Danish debit card payments, paying-in slips, withdrawals from ATMs and Danish direct debit.

Account-to-account transfers and online bank transfers are settled in Intraday Clearing. The amount will be available on the next banking day if payment takes place after approx. 12PM.

With Express Clearing customers can transfer funds between accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. There is a fixed upper limit between financial institutions of DKK 500,000 per transaction.

In addition to the three systems for handling DKK, Denmark also participates in the TARGET cooperation which is the European Central Bank’s system for handling payments in EUR between EU countries.

In 2008, Denmark switched over to the new TARGET2 payment system. This makes it possible for participants that are represented in several countries to have one access point for allocating liquidity in the Eurozone, which can mean more effective utilization of liquidity.

As a non-Euro country, Denmark is subject to a range of limitations which mean, for example that Danish participants with TARGET2 access via the Central Bank of Denmark do not have access to Euro liquidity overnight.

TARGET2 is closed on the following days (in addition to Saturdays and Sundays):

New Year’s Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
1 May
Christmas Day
Boxing Day

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Finance Denmark is a business association for banks, mortgage institutions, asset management, securities trading and investment funds in Denmark. Our members are mortgage institutions, banks, savings banks, cooperative savings banks, Danish branches of foreign banks, asset managers, Danish securities dealers and investment funds.