ColombiaInstant is the new normal
Colombia is one of Latin America’s most digitally connected economies, with a population of over 54 million people whose relationship with money is shifting fast to instant, bank-linked payments. Its digital economy is set to exceed US$ 73 billion by 2028 and regulators are building the infrastructure to keep pace.
The way locals pay
Local payment methods to know
Online payments mix eCommerce 2026 projections
A2A transfers dominate
Led by PSE, A2A transfers account for roughly 40% of Colombia’s eCommerce volume, worth an estimated US$ 23.7 billion in 2026 and growing 18% YoY, though that growth is expected to ease to 15% by 2028.
This habit is deeply ingrained. Colombians have spent over a decade routing everyday purchases straight from their bank accounts. And now instant payments are becoming the backbone of everyday transactions. Bre-B, the central bank’s interoperable real-time payment system, is expected to become the default way Colombians pay each other and merchants alike. It’s reinforcing a familiar behavior, giving consumers who have depended on bank transfers to enjoy an instant, cross-bank experience.
Regulators are catching up with this, as seen in the country’s Fintech Law and open banking push. This year, Colombia’s data-sharing framework for financial services went from something a handful of banks opted into to a legal obligation across the sector.
to be spent on digital commerce in Colombia
Cards and eWallets maintain their stronghold
Beyond PSE and Bre-B, cards, Nequi and Efecty round out Colombia’s checkout. Cards hold about 41% of online spend, on par with A2A, and remain the preferred choice for cross-border purchases (roughly 18% of eCommerce volume overall) and for spreading the cost of bigger purchases over several months.
eWallets are carving out a significant share too, led by Nequi. Now an independent neobank with 29 million users (more than half the total population), Nequi is becoming one of the fastest-growing ways Colombians pay online.
Alongside this, Efecty is digitalizing cash, letting a physical peso settle an online order.
In this context, merchants should build for both alternative payment methods and cards to access Colombia’s US$ 59 billion digital economy, growing more than 12% a year. And, most importantly, they should expect instant payments to get faster and more automatic as Bre-B extends into full eCommerce.
Three months after one of our merchants enabled Nequi at checkout, it accounted for 63% of total TPV, almost all of it incremental, rather than shifted from cards. By month six, Nequi’s share reached 68%, with payment costs down 19%.
Bre-B: Colombia’s answer to Pix
Since its full launch in October 2025, Bre-B has grown into Colombia’s answer to Pix in Brazil. Like Pix, any Colombian can register with Bre-B and start sending or receiving money instantly across institutions. And while the two systems share many similarities, Bre-B has scaled remarkably quickly. Within six months, Bre-B had registered over 100 million payment keys1 and reached more than 80% of Colombians, according to PCMI, faster than Pix’s early trajectory in Brazil.
Daily Bre-B transaction value climbed from under COP$ 500 billion (US$ 160 million) at launch to peaks near COP$ 1.2 trillion (US$ 380 million) by March 2026.
Bre-B connects Colombia’s banks for instant payments.
Right now, this is almost entirely evident in P2P transfers and in-person QR payments. The government hasn’t rolled out a formal eCommerce framework for Bre-B yet, so it isn’t showing up in most Colombians’ online checkouts. That hasn’t stopped payment providers like dLocal from preparing for what comes next, with early solutions to bring Bre-B into ecommerce.
The central bank has flagged unified merchant QR codes and business payments, covering collections, payroll and supplier disbursements, for the second half of 2026. For people, that could bring the convenience of instant payments into more moments of everyday life.
At the same time, there’s an opportunity to make Bre-B feel even more natural at checkout. Tokenization and biometric authentication could remove steps from the payment experience, particularly for recurring payments.
One year of Bre-BRegistered payment keys passed 100 million within six months and reached 116 million in Bre-B’s first year.
Colombians have trusted their bank accounts to move money for years, and Bre-B now makes this experience instant. We’re seeing the same with Nequi, also helping people to pay individuals and businesses faster. When you let people get more from the processes they’re familiar with, they’re more likely to make it a habitual part of their financial lives. At scale, these developments stop being about individual products and start becoming part of how people move money every day. That’s why working closely with authorities is so important, to make sure we’re building something that really works for Colombians.
