P27 Nordic Payments (P27) is the largest regional, cross-border, instant payments project ever attempted, and its future is now uncertain.

In a recent statement, the company announced that it had withdrawn its clearing license application from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).

In the statement, Paula da Silva, CEO of P27, said: "The company's vision is to provide better payment infrastructure to the 27 million people living in Northern Europe and has set out an optimistic timeline. Recently, it became clear that our vision was too ambitious and complex. As a result, we need to reassess our future objectives in the Nordic payments market."

The announcement comes against a backdrop of turmoil for the group. After the initial application in 2019 was rejected by the regulator, the group submitted a second liquidation license application in 2022.

It was recently revealed that Denmark's banking sector has decided to pursue alternative solutions other than the P27 project to conduct an alternative review of the modernization of the country's payments infrastructure. In addition, Sweden's Instant Payment Scheme has decided in recent weeks that it will work with other players to modernize the country's payment system.

Finland and Norway have yet to make an official announcement, however, Norway has been a lukewarm, even cynical, participant throughout the P27 project's rollout.

While P27 did not confirm whether it would close the service, da Silva said: "We are now talking to the owner bank to assess the best options for the future." Sweden's banking sector is strong and industry institutions have always taken a shared responsibility to ensure that a resilient and robust payments infrastructure is provided."

P27 is the owner of Bankgirot and the two companies will continue to work together to ensure that the current payment infrastructure continues to operate if needed.