A widespread power cut in Spain and Portugal left many card users unable to make payments on Tuesday afternoon. The disruption caused major inconvenience at retailers, though the Bank of Spain confirmed that the national and cross-border payment systems were operating normally again by 3:30 p.m. local time.
The Bank explained that any remaining problems were mostly due to a lack of backup power at individual bank branches, shops, or among consumers. Many point-of-sale terminals, which handle card payments, had simply run out of battery, making card transactions impossible in some areas.
In recent years, Spain has made efforts to encourage digital payments and limit the use of cash. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has been pushing this shift to help tackle tax evasion. In 2021, Spain lowered the maximum amount of cash allowed per business transaction from €2,500 to €1,000. Despite these efforts, cash remains a key part of daily life in Spain. According to European Central Bank (ECB) data, cash still accounts for 57 percent of all retail transactions in the country. Non-online payments made through cards or mobile apps account for around 39 percent.
The vulnerability of digital payments to outages, whether accidental or intentional, has been a growing concern across Europe. Just last month, Sweden’s central bank warned citizens to keep physical cash on hand to prepare for emergency situations. Riksbank Governor Erik Thedéen highlighted the importance of this advice by referring to the "deteriorating security situation," an indirect reference to growing tensions with Russia.
This recent power failure in Spain and Portugal came only a few weeks after a separate technical issue affected the European Central Bank’s TARGET system, which processes wholesale payments. In that case, the outage lasted several hours but did not impact the most critical parts of the eurozone’s financial infrastructure, according to the ECB.
The incident has renewed questions about the resilience of increasingly cashless societies and the importance of maintaining access to physical currency when technology fails.
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