Dankort, the Danish national debit card system from the early 1980s

Abstract

In the mid-1970s the Danish banks saw problems in controlling national payments. The use of checks had increased dramatically, as had the cost of check clearing. The national postal giro system was a cheap and popular payment system across a large part of the population, and foreign payment card companies were interested in the Danish market. Facing these challenges, the Danish banks and savings banks agreed to establish a shared national electronic debit card system (Dankort), the first in the world. The Dankort project faced much public and political attention, which produced a parliament act on payment card systems. The Dankort project encompassed development of new hardware and software and a new payment procedure in the Danish retail. Dankort now covers more than 80% of all retail payments in Denmark (2014).