The rails
Bre-B, Colombia’s interoperable instant payments ecosystem, for the domestic leg — reaching accounts and wallets across participating institutions through a single alias.
Cross-border payments · Colombia
Colombia now settles
in seconds.
Bre-B gave Colombia a fully interoperable instant payment system. Paired with a licensed FX intermediary, it makes same-day COP settlement the norm rather than the exception.
Licensed FX intermediaries. Documented settlement. Same-day where cut-off allows.
COPLocal currency settled
Bre-BInstant interoperable rail
T+0Typical settlement
Not grey-listedFATF status
01 The Colombia corridor
How the money actually moves.
The FX
Executed by a licensed exchange market intermediary under Banco de la República rules, with the conversion documented and reportable.
The settlement
Because Bre-B clears in seconds and is interoperable across the system, the domestic leg is no longer the bottleneck. The FX cut-off is.
02 Who we do this for
Built for businesses that trade.
03 Colombia in detail
What you need to know.
Bre-B is the real change
Banco de la República built Bre-B as an interoperable instant payments system, and full interoperability across participating institutions went live in September, letting users move money using a simple alias rather than account details. Adoption has been fast — the system passed 500 million transactions, and it has been recognised internationally for its design.
For cross-border, the significance is that the last mile stopped being slow. Paying a Colombian supplier or a few thousand Colombian sellers is now a question of how quickly the FX leg clears, not how long the local banking system takes.
The part that still needs doing properly
Colombia regulates who may execute foreign exchange. The conversion has to run through a licensed exchange market intermediary, with the operation classified and reported correctly. Get that wrong and the speed of Bre-B is irrelevant — the funds are still exposed.
We place clients with intermediaries that combine the licence with genuine Bre-B reach, so the regulatory leg and the fast leg are handled by counterparties that actually work together.
04 How it works
Three steps. About two minutes of your time.
01
Tell us the corridor
Direction, currencies, volume and what you are paying for in Colombia.
02
We build your shortlist
We pick the banks and licensed institutions that genuinely cover this corridor.
03
You get introduced
Straight to the people who decide, usually inside 72 hours.
Questions
Straight answers.
What is Bre-B?
Bre-B is Colombia’s interoperable instant payment system, built by Banco de la República. It lets payments move between participating banks and wallets in seconds using a registered alias, and it has already processed over 500 million transactions.
Can I pay Colombian suppliers the same day?
Usually yes. Bre-B settles the domestic leg in seconds, so within the FX cut-off same-day settlement is routine. The constraint is the foreign exchange leg, not the local rail.
Do I need a Colombian entity to pay in COP?
No. A licensed exchange market intermediary can convert and settle domestically in COP on your behalf while you fund in your own currency.
Is Colombia a high-risk jurisdiction?
Colombia is not on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring. Standard trade due diligence applies.
Same-day COP, done correctly.
Tell us your Colombia flow. We will match you to a licensed intermediary with real Bre-B reach.
Get my shortlist