Colombia

Colombia made real-time payments available with the launch of Transfiya (also known as Transferencias YA) in September 2019. The real-time payments volume and value are relatively low compared to paper-based payments, accounting for 3.7% share in terms of volume, though this is only the second lowest share in the region, ahead of Mexico. Colombia has been continually enhancing Transfiya since its launch. Effective from September 2022, the daily transfer limit was increased to 2 million Colombian pesos (approximately 500 USD), and the number of transactions was increased to 15; B2B and QR code-based P2P payments functionality was added to the Transfiya system in 2023. In the forecast period of 2023 to 2028, Colombia is the second fastest growing in the region after Peru in terms of real-time payments volume, with an expected CAGR of 42.6%.

2023 also witnessed the beginning of a great disruption in terms of immediate payments for Colombia. The Central Bank of Colombia, also known as Banco de la República, has been working to define the new rules of the immediate payments system in the country. Analyzing Brazil’s success with PIX, the Central Bank has been following in its footsteps and taking advantage of this experience to implement immediate payments 24×7 and interoperability throughout the financial ecosystem. In turn, they plan to launch a centralized directory of aliases, which will have a great impact on the innovation of new use cases and improve the user experience.

Colombia will become a regional reference for immediate payments, facilitating the entry of new participants (such as fintechs), improving financial inclusion, and controlling real-time fraud. ACI Worldwide has been chosen as the main provider to enable real-time payments (with the ISO 20022 standard) in Colombia.